ATF raids Blackwater automatic weapons cache.

[SirNitram]

Link

RALEIGH, N.C. - Federal agents have raided an armory owned by security contractor Blackwater Worldwide.

The North Carolina-based company said the raid was part of an investigation into a deal that allowed a local sheriff's office to store high-powered assault rifles at the company's armory at its headquarters in Moyock.

Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell says that investigators with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives searched Blackwater's armory Tuesday.

She said she did not know whether the weapons in question were seized.

Tyrrell said ATF has known about the arrangement for a long time and that the company believes it is lawful and proper.

Both ATF and U.S. Attorney George Holding declined to comment.

I earlier posted an article on another board on the highly suspect deal, and lo and behold, someone did their jobs and searched the place. It's actually shocking.

[General Havoc]

I've never heard of this deal... could you give us the details? It seems a bit odd to me.

[SirNitram]

I've never heard of this deal... could you give us the details? It seems a bit odd to me.

Alright. There's a law in place saying private entities(Like Blackwater Worldwide) can't own fully automatic weapons in the US unless the specific weapon is grandfathered in(IE, was physically built before the ban). You can purchase these grandfathered guns legally and retain the grandfathering.

Blackwater Worldwide, apparently getting used to it's total legal immunity, opted not to pursue the legal method of purchase, own, and potentially use AK-47s and other automatic weapons. They instead purchased a local sheriff's office 34 automatic weapons(17 Romanian-built AK-47s, 17 Bushmasters), while the office has only 19 Deputies. In the past ten years, the town in question has seen two murders, three robberies, and ten rapes. This is not a cesspit requiring a heavily armed SWAT team(Also, the head of the national SWAT organization said the AK is a crappy weapon for them).

The majority of the weapons are kept in Blackwater's armoury(Which got raided). It reeks of an illegal 'straw purchase', where one person registers a weapon and lets someone else have it.

Full article: Link

[General Havoc]

Wow... that's... reasonably sleazy.

In fact that's VERY sleazy.

And the worst part of all? They did this sleazy things to get their hands on fully automatic weapons, and they chose AK-47s?! I mean have some fucking class! AK-47s are what pissant third-world militias use. Don't tell me Blackwater can't afford the good stuff!

[SirNitram]

If it were any other company, any other war, any other era, I'd say it was some corporate paper-pusher who leapt on the best cost-to-maintenence figures(AK's are stupid-durable).

Of course, Blackwater has already caught investigations into smuggling weapons to Middle Eastern terrorist groups. Link to the AP story of that.

So you know.

[Derek Thunder]

It just wouldn't be as poetic if the rifles were AR-4s manufactured in say... Iowa. The AK-47 is the best weapon to evoke the shadow of regressive tyrannical states like Turkmenistan or the former Soviet Union. It's not just a rifle, it's a fashion statement.

[B4UTRUST]

Seriously, since I'm the only one who's ever actually been in a blackwater facility probably, these guys don't fuck around. Their guards (and yes, they have armed guards about 3 miles outside of their actual facility that basically give you the friendly feeling that unless you have real business there, don't bother even coming close to them) walk around in body armor and automatic weapons. And that's at the gate house/parking lot outside the facility. It gets worse inside.

The fact that they have these weapons doesn't surprise me at all considering they fucking walk around with them. It just surprises me it took this long for anyone to bother looking into it that gave a damn.

As for the AK-47s, it's the most commonly used weapons against american forces in the places they're currently working in. If you want to do things sneakily do you really want to use a weapon that is readily identifiable or one that everyone and their brother has that they can't as easily trace. That and export/selling them does bring in a bit of cash.