OSLO (Reuters) – Norwegian police have issued an international search warrant for Rinson Jose, a Norwegian-Indian man linked to the sale of pagers to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah that exploded last week, they said on Thursday.
Jose, 39, disappeared while on a work trip to the United States last week. He is a founder of a Bulgarian company that was reportedly part of the pager supply chain.
“Yesterday, September 25, the Oslo police district received a missing person report in connection with the pager case,” Oslo police said in an email to Reuters.
“A missing persons case has been opened and we have issued an international arrest warrant for the person,” it added.
Jose declined to comment on the pagers when reached by phone last Wednesday, Sept. 18, and hung up when asked about the Bulgarian operations. He did not return repeated calls and texts.
Jose’s Norwegian employer, DN Media Group, said he went to a conference in Boston on September 17 and the company has not been able to reach him since September 18. He works in the group’s sales department.
In 2022, Jose founded the Sofia-based company Norta Global Ltd, Bulgaria’s business registry shows.
Bulgaria has investigated the company’s role in the supply of pagers, but has found no evidence that they were manufactured or exported from the country.
(Editing by Kevin Liffey; Editing by David Gregorio)