NEW YORK, December 21 - RAPSI. On Thursday, federal judge Sterling Johnson ordered the prosecutor's office to disclose classified investigative materials to the defendants in the case implicating Arc Electronics in the illegal export of high-tech electronics from the US to Russia.

The defendants and their lawyers are prohibited from distributing any case materials or providing copies of prosecutorial or FBI documents to any third parties. Prosecutor Daniel Silver insisted that the case should be classified on the grounds that some of the information is connected with US national security.

The court set the hearings for March 1, 2013. The parties are expected to draft a schedule setting key dates for the trial, terms to file applications and dates to start the trial.

Federal prosecutors in New York reported earlier that 11 members of an alleged secret Russian military procurement network have been charged with illegally shipping sophisticated microelectronics to Russia's military and intelligence agencies.

There are a total of 11 defendants in the case, three of them have been placed on the wanted list.

Four of the eight arrested - Viktoria Klebanova, Alexander Fishenko, Alexander Posobilov and Anastasia Dyatlova - have U.S. and Russian passports. The Russian Foreign Ministry has said that it considers them Russian citizens and has promised to support them.

The FBI arrested the alleged ringleader, 46-year-old Alexander Fishenko, and seven others on October 3-4. They also executed search warrants at seven residences and business locations and seized assets from five bank accounts.

The Department of Justice believes three other suspects remain at-large and have already returned to Russia.

The charges read that Fishenko had been running an elaborate scheme since 2008 that tricked customs agents into believing that his company - the Houston-based Arc Electronics, Inc. - manufactured and shipped routine products to Russia. Instead, the suspects provided Russia with "controlled, sensitive technologies" that can be used for radar and surveillance and weapons guidance systems, as well as detonation triggers.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has insinuated that the US is applying psychological pressure on the arrested Russian citizens in an effort to force guilty pleas.