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That's-a One Spicy Arms Deal! Posted by ueberbill (9037 views) [E-Mail link] [Military] If you are an Italian anti-mafia investigator who has a warrant to search a suspected mafioso's luggage at an airport, you expect to find drugs. Lots of drugs. What you do NOT expect to find is the evidence of a massive illegal arms-trading deal with Iraq. In the course of an anti-mafia investigation, Italian police were following suspect Gianluca Squarzolo as he went through an Italian airport en route to Libya. When he checked his luggage, the police did a quick sneak-and-peek to find evidence of illegal activity. What they found were bulletproof vests, helmets, and a weapons catalog. The catalog was used by entities within Iraq to create their wish list of tens of thousands of assault rifles and machine guns. Iraqis claiming alternatively to be from the Interior Ministry and "security ministries" contacted a Malta-based firm about acquiring the guns, of course with American approval. The only problem is that the American Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq (MNSTC-I, of course), which is in charge of arming and training the Iraqis, knew nothing about it. In fact, the Americans were arming the Iraqis with American M-16's, over 700,000 of which have already been purchased (not including the 190,000 guns given to the Iraqi security forces which have been lost), and the Iraqis were looking to acquire AK-47 variants made in Russia. The negotiations for the deal were carried out exclusively over e-mail, which made both sides a little nervous at times (understandable--for all the Italians knew, they could be buying thousands of assault rifles for a 13-year-old boy in Kansas). Eventually, the Italians had 105,000 guns ready to sell for $39.7 million for a tidy $6.6 million profit. That's when the police swooped in and arrested half a dozen Italians linked to the deal. As of yet, no Iraqis have been arrested. Details   Posted by Pile on 2007-08-14 14:24:43 Where did you get that graphic? Did Wizegurl make it? It's awesome. Posted by ueberbill on 2007-08-15 08:05:34 Wasn't me- must've been wizegurl. It is pretty fantastic.   Comments   Name: (change name for anonymous posting) Title: Comments:     1 Article displayed.

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