It also ignored the fact that AEY had defaulted on prior contracts.

For decades, weapons had been stockpiled in warehouses throughout the Balkans and Eastern Europe for the threat of war against the West, but now arms dealers were selling them off to the highest bidder.

But nearly $2 million?Packouz was about to get a rare education. And under the Bush administration, small businesses like AEY were guaranteed a share of the arms deals. I realized I was going to get caught no matter what I did, so I turned myself in. The handshake deal they had made was worth just that — a handshake.In an effort to protect his interests, Packouz demanded a meeting with lawyers present. Worst of all, Podrizki noticed that the steel containers holding the ammunition — known as “sardine cans” — were covered in Chinese markings.

The company and Diveroli had both been placed on the State Department “watch list” for importing illegal firearms. Most companies grow by attracting more customers. As they passed a joint back and forth, Diveroli decided it was time for Packouz to step up and take on a larger role.“I don’t really have time to source all these things,” he told Packouz. Those companies had entire departments dedicated to selling to the Pentagon. Still a teenager, he rented a room in a house owned by a Hispanic family in Miami and went to work on his laptop. Then he hinted that there was a way to get around the blacklist. “If the Albanians want to still work with me, I will not open my mouth,” he promised. He moved from his tiny efficiency apartment to a nice one-bedroom overlooking the pool at the Flamingo in fashionable South Beach. But while he was awaiting sentencing on the fraud charges, Diveroli couldn’t stay out of the business he loved. Throughout the meal they passed Diveroli’s cocaine bullet back and forth under the table, using napkins to pretend to blow their noses.“You and me, buddy,” Diveroli said. Thomet was singled out by Amnesty International for smuggling arms out of Zimbabwe in violation of U.S. sanctions. “When we let go with our machine guns, all the other shooters would stop and look at us like, ‘What the fuck was that?’ Everyone else had pistols going The structure for AEY’s purchase of the Albanian ammo was standard in the world of illegal arms deals, where the whole point is to disguise origins and end-users. For example, Butler and crew really lived on a submarine with U.S. sailors. His father brokered Kevlar jackets and other weapons-related paraphernalia to local police forces, and his uncle B.K. Diveroli was rich. There were just 10 minutes left before the application deadline. “I will do whatever you tell me to do.”Diveroli suggested that Trebicka try bribing Ylli Pinari, the head of the Albanian arms-exporting agency that was supplying the ammunition. Third, the only requirement in the contract was that the ammunition be “serviceable without qualification.” As Diveroli and Packouz interpreted it, that meant the Pentagon didn’t care if they supplied “shit ammo,” as long as it “went bang and went out of the barrel.”For the two friends, it was a chance to enter a world usually reserved for multinational defense contractors with armies of well-connected lobbyists. The government website where contracts are posted is fbo.gov, known as “FedBizOpps.” Diveroli soon became adept at the arcane lingo of federal contracts. Getting rid of Thomet was impossible, because that was how the Albanians were being paid off the books.Diveroli flew to Albania and tried to intervene to help Trebicka keep the job, but he didn’t have enough clout to get the decision reversed. As an apprentice arms dealer, he proved to be a quick study. Cargo planes filled with ammunition were taking off from airports across Eastern Europe. “Mark my words — crash and burn.”At a booth displaying a new robotic reconnaissance device, Diveroli and Packouz met with Heinrich Thomet, a Swiss arms dealer who served as a crucial go-between for AEY. But Diveroli had his own advantages: low overhead, an appetite for risk and all-devouring ambition.In the beginning, Diveroli specialized in bidding on smaller contracts for items like helmets and ammunition for U.S. Special Forces.
The embassy had been trying to find the money to pay for demolishing the ammunition, so sending the rounds to Afghanistan would actually do them a favor. As Diveroli arranged a line of coke on the dashboard, he warned Packouz not to make any mistakes with the grenades.“You’ve got the bitch’s panties off,” Diveroli said, adopting his best movie-star swagger.


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