A Boeing 727 airplane sold by a Franklin County company has become the center of an international controversy involving accusations of mercenary activity in Zimbabwe.

Officials with Dodson International in Rantoul said they sold the aircraft late last month to a British company doing business in South Africa. It was seized Sunday by the Zimbabwean government, which claims 64 mercenaries were on board with a cargo of military materiel.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Robert Dodson Sr., a director with the Rantoul company. “We basically sold the airplane, and the rest of it is just what we’re finding out in the news.”

Dodson said his company began negotiations in mid-February with Logo Logistics Ltd. to sell the 38-year-old plane. Dodson International sells both airplanes and airplane parts.

After settling on an undisclosed amount of money, Dodson said his company hired a crew to deliver the plane to South Africa. Company representatives told him they wanted the plane to move crews among diamond mines in Africa.

Zimbabwe officials seized the plane in Harare after pilots allegedly made a “false declaration of cargo and crew.”

Logo representatives told the Reuters news service Tuesday the plane was bound Sunday for the Democratic Republic of Congo and the men on board — Angolans, South Africans and Namibians — were scheduled to work as security guards at mines. They said the aircraft had landed in Zimbabwe to pick up mining equipment.

But a Zimbabwe government official charged Tuesday that “the modus operandi of the group … indicates that the group was on a military mission on the African continent.”

Meanwhile, Equatorial Guinea government announced Tuesday it had arrested 15 suspected foreign mercenaries it described as an advance party connected with the group detained in Zimbabwe.

Dodson International Zimbabwe opposition vows to increase pressure on president (12-21-03) New York Times: Zimbabwe: Seized plane adds to coup jitters (reg. req.) CNN.com: Zimbabwe ‘alert’ over seized jet

In Washington reporters grilled Pentagon spokesman Army Maj. Paul Swiergosz about the United States’ possible involvement in a foreign military mission linked to the alleged mercenaries.

“It isn’t one of our planes and not any of our people,” Swiergosz said.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has been at odds with the United States since 2002. Many Western observers said the 2002 elections were flawed.

Mugabe also has accused Western powers of attempting to undermine his government in retaliation for his controversial seizure of white-owned farms for distribution to blacks without land.

Dodson said he suspected the seizure of the plane was more about politics than actual military threat.

“I doubt anything fishy was going on,” he said. “My personal opinion, if anything fishy was going on, it was probably Zimbabwe seizing an American airplane. Any time Zimbabwe can do anything to embarrass the U.S., they will.”