Washington, April 22 (Reuters): US authorities arrested an American engineer today on suspicion of giving secrets on nuclear weapons, fighter jets and air defence missiles to Israel during the 1980s, the justice department said.

Ben-Ami Kadish acknowledged his spying in FBI interviews and said he acted out of a belief that he was helping Israel, court papers said. He was accused of reporting to the same Israeli government handler as Jonathan Jay Pollard, who is serving a life term on a 1985 charge of spying for Israel.

Kadish’s arrest is a sign the Pollard scandal may have spread wider than was previously acknowledged.

Kadish was arrested in New Jersey and was scheduled to be arraigned later at US district court in Manhattan, authorities said. Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Arye Mekel, asked about the arrest, said: “We know nothing about it. We heard it from the media.”

Pollard pleaded guilty in 1986, and Israel acknowledged in 1998 that the former US navy intelligence analyst was one of its spies. Pollard has been granted Israeli citizenship.

Kadish is a Connecticut-born US citizen who worked as a mechanical engineer at the US army’s Armament Research, Development and Engineering Centre at the Picatinny Arsenal in Dover, New Jersey.

His spying for Israel lasted roughly from 1979 to 1985, and his contact with the unidentified Israeli handler continued until March of this year, the federal complaint against him said.