Mozaffar Khazaee alias Arash Khazaie was arrested at a New Jersey airport on Thursday for attempting to ship military secrets to Iran. Mr Khazaee used to be a resident of Manchester, Connecticut. Later, he moved to Indianapolis, Indiana.

According to the U.S. Attorney's office, Mr Khazaee acquired the secret documents while he served as an engineer for defence contractors. Mr Khazaee is accused of trying to ship some "sensitive" military documents from Connecticut to California so that they could be put on a container ship heading to Iran, Stars and Stripes reports. Mr Khazaee claimed that he was shipping "household goods" in the ship.

When the shipment was examined in California, the Customs and Border Protection team discovered that there were 44 boxes containing technical manuals of sensitive nature. The boxes also contained specification sheets as well as other proprietary materials which were supposed to be secret. The documents were in connection with military jets and the U.S. Air Force's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter programme. The secret documents also contained blueprints and diagrams.

According to the company that is responsible for the shipping, the package was going to be received in Iran by someone who had claimed to be Mr Khazaee's brother-in-law. He also claimed that he was supposed to keep it with him until Mr Khazaee's return to Iran. Mr Khazaee, who has a dual-citizenship in both Iran and the U.S., received naturalised U.S. citizenship in 1991.

Three separate defence owned the documents. Mr Khazaee worked for all these contractors, the complaint reads. His recent work as an engineer was in August 2013. He worked for one defence contractor based in Connecticut. Mr Khazaee was supposed to go Tehran on Jan 9 and return to the U.S. on Jan 21.

Mr Khazaee was arrested at Newark Liberty International Airport moments before he could board one connecting flight. He is presently detained after appearing in Newark before U.S. Magistrate Judge James B. Clark III.