A Chinese man was extradited to Boston on Friday to face federal charges on suspicion of smuggling components manufactured in Massachusetts that could be used to make nuclear weapons in Iran.

Sihai Cheng was arrested in the U.K. and transported Friday to Boston's Logan Airport. He is a Chinese national who also used the aliases Alex Cheng and Chun Hai Cheng. 

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Along with Iranian citizen Seyed Abolfazi Shahab Jamili, Cheng was accused of "smuggling, exporting and conspiring to export American goods with nuclear applications to Iran." Jamili remains at large.

Also charged were Eyvaz Technic Manufacturing Company and Nicaro Eng. Co., Ltd, each an Iranian company.

The indictment names Cheng as an owner who owned a trading company with offices in mainland China and Hong Kong. He first supplied Chinese parts that could go into nuclear weapons in 2005 to Jamili, the Iranian arms trader. Jamili operated Nicaro and supplied parts to Eyvaz.

The European Union and the U.S. have imposed sanctions against both companies due to their activities supplying the Iranian regime with parts intended for uranium enrichment facilities.

According to the indictment, Jamili told Cheng the parts were intended for "a very big project and secret one." The Iranian in 2009 asked Cheng to find pressure transducers that could be used in centrifuges to produce enriched uranium for nuclear weapons.

Following the 2009 contacts, Cheng allegedly contacted MKS Instruments, an American company, at its Shanghai office. MKS is based in Andover, Mass., hence the filing of charges in Boston.

Cheng, an unnamed MKS worker, and an unnamed co-conspirator allegedly set up fraudulent companies to hide the parts transfers.

They committed fraud to obtain U.S. export licenses and attempted to funnel the parts through Shanghai from Boston and then to Iran, cording to the indictment, thereby breaking U.S. export laws.

Cheng is due to appear at a Boston federal court on Monday. He could face up to 20 years in prison on some of the charges and a $4 million fine. 

TagsIran, Boston, Sihai Cheng, Seyed Abolfazi Shahab Jamili, federal court