OSLO (Reuters) – Norwegian police have issued an international search warrant for Rinson Jose, a Norwegian of Indian origin linked to the sale of pagers to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah that exploded last week, they said on Thursday.
Jose, 39, disappeared last week while on a business trip to the United States. He is the founder of a Bulgarian company that is believed to have been part of the pager supply chain.
Asked about the steps taken to find Jose, police said in an email to Reuters: “Yesterday, September 25, the Oslo police district received a missing person report in connection with the pager case.”
“A disappearance investigation has been opened and we have issued an international arrest warrant against this person,” he added.
Norwegian criminal police, Kripos, which handles international requests, confirmed to Reuters that the request had been sent, declining to give further details.
When a person goes missing abroad, Kripos normally issues a global alert, or “yellow notice”, but can also contact foreign counterparts directly depending on the circumstances, its spokesman told Reuters earlier.
Interpol was not immediately available for comment.
Jose declined to comment on the pager issue when contacted by phone last Wednesday, September 18, and hung up when asked about the Bulgarian case. He did not respond to repeated calls and text messages.
Jose’s Norwegian employer, DN Media Group, said he left for a conference in Boston on September 17 and that the company had not been able to reach him since September 18. He works in the group’s sales department.
In 2022, José founded the Sofia-based company Norta Global Ltd, as shown in the Bulgarian Companies Register.
Bulgaria investigated the company’s role in supplying the booby-trapped pagers, but found no evidence that they were manufactured or exported from the country.
The Norwegian Security Police (PST) also launched a preliminary investigation earlier this week into reports that a Norwegian company was linked to the sale of pagers.
In two days last week, thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah operatives exploded in Lebanon, killing at least 39 people and wounding thousands.
It is widely believed that these attacks were carried out by Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.
(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis; Editing by Kevin Liffey, David Gregorio and Sharon Singleton)
