By Adam Tanner SAN FRANCISCO, June 4 (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors charged 10 people, including an ex-Laotian general, on Monday with seeking to topple the government of Laos in what they described as a dramatic cloak-and-dagger plot thwarted by an undercover agent posing as an arms dealer. "These defendants had developed an audacious plan to overthrow the government of Laos, and were seeking to arm themselves with automatic rifles, rockets and surface-to-air missiles," Assistant U.S. Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein said. Most prominent among those charged is Vang Pao, 77, a southern California resident and ethnic Hmong. A general in the Royal Lao Army before the Communists came to power in 1975, he led a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency-trained mercenary army during the war in Indochina. Pao remains influential among the more than 100,000 Hmong in the United States; in April a Wisconsin school district voted to rename a school after him. Many of those arrested lived in and around Fresno in central California, home to a large Hmong population. A special agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives posed as a arms dealer who worked through Harrison Jack, 60, a retired U.S. officer who served a combat tour in Southeast Asia. Jack was charged for his role. 'LIKE A MOVIE SCRIPT' According to the U.S. Justice Department, more than than 200 federal agents conducted pre-dawn raids across California. "This investigation read like a movie script, but turned out to be reality," Michael Sullivan, acting ATF director, said in a statement. "The individuals arrested today thought an arms dealer would provide the necessary weapons and personnel to assist them in the violent overthrow of another government. An undercover ATF agent led them to believe he could fulfill their needs." The complaint, filed in federal court in the California capital Sacramento, said the men sought to spend millions of dollars for Stinger missiles, mines, automatic rifles and anti-tank missiles. They are alleged to have wanted to ship them to Thailand for eventual use against Laos -- where the complaint said they had planted spies to survey military and government facilities. "The defendants have issued instructions that the mercenary force is to destroy these government facilities, to reduce them to rubble, and make them look like the results of the attack upon the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001," the complaint said. The men face conspiracy charges, including to kill and kidnap abroad, and could face life in prison. The undercover agent, whose name was redacted from court documents, quoted Jack in justifying the alleged plot. "Jack told me the Laotian government was engaging in genocide against the Hmong people living in Laos, and that the Hmong community was very sensitive about protecting their people," the agent said in an affidavit.
