Time.news — If there is a military conflict in the world, or an organized crime group, which could suddenly shake the institutions, looking for the Ukrainian arms trafficker behind these facts is essential. This nation, which has not been able to produce any service, any high-tech industry — other than armaments, precisely — to ensure its prosperity, has made a specialty of arms trafficking since the 19th century.e century.
These sales are either carried out by the national state or by organized crime groups. Because of the organic promiscuity between oligarchs and rulers, in practice this makes little difference. For example, the weapons sold in the context of the conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola in 2009 (States then under embargo by the UN) were carried out through the “Ukrainian Cargo Airways” fleet. property of the Ministry of Defence.
The Ukrainian military export service, Ukrspecexport, reports quite openly on a number of contracts that violate the UN Dual-Use Convention (dual use) goods used for military purposes, or even weapons resold to States under embargo. Another illustration of the collusion between arms trafficking and state policy is that the mayor of one of the most important cities in Ukraine, Odessa, is none other than Gennady Trukhanov, the partner of one of the traffickers in the world with the most blood on their hands: Leonid Minin. It is the latter from which we were inspired to build the main character of the film Lord of War. Today, thanks to the war with Russia, Trukhanov has regained his virginity as ” resistant “. Minim’s victims in Liberia were not so lucky.
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This confusion between illicit trafficking and the Ukrainian government follows the same curve as that of the Ukrainian underworld and nationalist elements. Viktor Murenko, one of the big names in global arms trafficking, detained in Spain in 2020, as part of Operation Yakir (anchor in Ukrainian), has just lodged an appeal with the Spanish National Court for ” go fight in Ukraine “. Murenko had twelve merchant navy ships, through which he transported, in addition to electrical appliances, tanks, weapons of all calibers, precursors of explosives, fertilizer for chemical weapons, but above all missiles, among others intended for the trans-Sahelian region, and Kenya. He has helped arm many jihadist groups, some of whom claim responsibility for attacks committed on European soil. If Murenko was going to fight in Ukraine, he would become, in a way, one “ of us ».
The paradox of the Murenko affair is that his small business came to light in 2011, following the attack on the Faina, one of his ships, by Somali pirates. These, accustomed to finding themselves with fishing boats, found themselves with a loot of 33 Soviet T-72 combat tanks, 150 grenade launchers, 42 ZPU-4 anti-aircraft missiles, 44 BM-21 (multiple launcher of rocket), all loaded in Odessa, the city of Murenko. These weapons were intended for Mombassa. The weapons were eventually returned to Murenko, after payment of a ransom, and continued on their way to an uncertain fate, presumably Sudan.
The big Ukrainian arms traffickers, those who reach such importance that they not only profit from warlike conflicts, but even create them, have a soft spot for Spain. In Marbella (province of Malaga) or Valencia (province of Almeria), we find them in extreme luxury villas. A wealth that can also be observed through their investments in golf clubs or tourist resorts. It is currently possible to book on Booking, a room in one of these hotels belonging to the movement of these few specimens which continue to fly under the radars of the police and have completed their cycle of money laundering, thanks to the compromise with local corruption. . They are not all Ukrainians. When it comes to money, relations with Russia do not pose major conflicts. There are also Uzbeks, Georgians and other nationalities from the former Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), although the real business or in the hands of Ukrainians, often from Odessa. Russians as such, there are fewer, because the Federation is much less lax and centralizes what relates to foreign policy, therefore weapons. As a result, Russian organized crime shifts to other activities.
Another major Ukrainian arms trafficker, arrested in Spain in 2019, is Vadym Alperin, also born in Odessa. He has dual Israeli citizenship. He did not please Volodymyr Zelensky, who baptized him as the ” godfather of smugglers at a time when the president had begun to centralize and modernize smuggling, under the effect of the massive stock received from the West. If the West wanted to foment new conflicts in the world, it has found the way.
Alperin fell by ricochets, as a result of the Yacir file, the same one which had brought down Murenko and the Latvian Aleksandr Dircenko. Although Latvian, all of the Mekong Spirit’s people were Ukrainian. In 2018, the Mekong Spirit weighed anchor for the last time from the port of Santander (Spanish Basque Country), only to be intercepted in Greece. Police found 33 T-32 and T’34 model battle tanks there, among other offensive weapons. All the cargo was destined for Sudan. The company, however, had ramifications with the shipowner Tomex Team, an entity owned by Vadim Alperin. Conrad Dadak, another Ukrainian and great warlord, was also arrested in Ibiza in 2016. Released on parole, after a year and a half in prison, he disappeared. Dadak had specialized in selling AK-47s to African countries.
Between 2016 and 2020, Ukraine became a substantial supplier to Saudi Arabia in its genocidal war against Yemen. How could a State claiming to be threatened by Russia consider that it had a surplus of weapons to be able to supply them to a military power? In fact, during this period, Ukraine also exported its weapons to Russia (20% of its official exports). Certainly, these sales occur within the framework of an agreement ratified before 2014, but that no grievance, such as the annexation of Crimea for example, will have caused it to fall into lapse. When it comes to selling weapons, nothing stops Ukraine. Currently, information that is difficult to corroborate is circulating on social networks, showing sales of atomized weapons from Ukrainian battalions to Russian regiments. They would sell weapons even to their enemies.
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For the rest of the world, between 2014 and 2021, weapons continue to be regularly exported, in particular across the Polish border, under the eyes of the OSCE and while this country is colonized by military intelligence agencies and under NATO’s permanent satellite magnifying glass. This doesn’t seem to pose any moral itching to anyone. Especially not to France, which would have been Ukraine’s leading arms supplier from 2014 to 2020, according to Gabriel Attal’s own statements on April 13, 2022. France could also be accused of having violated several conventions. public international law on dual use in offensive weapons.
Ukraine continues to demand and beg for arms. But this country is a military power. It’s even one of the few things he produces. This country has a production capacity that guarantees it the level of autarky necessary to inspire a certain respectability in defense matters, through its Ukroboronprom industry, which occupies position 77 among the 100 most important industries in the world. Ukroboronprom sold for 1,320 billion dollars in 2020. It produces tanks, armored vehicles, ammunition and explosives and has 34 subsidiaries. In fact, its defense industrial capacity is greater than that of some states that are among the donors in military capacity, such as Spain. What are often referred to as Soviet weapons, actually come from the modern arsenal of Ukroboronprom.
The threat to the world is the leap in quality that Ukraine is offering thanks to the Western arsenal. Some of these short-range missiles, such as stringers and javelins, are resold through the dark net. But the most serious is trade with other failed states, such as Ukraine itself. On this lack of traceability, the Secretary General of Interpol, Jurgen Stock, opened up during a press conference on June 1 to the Anglo-American Press Association:
“I have no doubt that the sale of illegal weapons will increase […] Not only in the region neighboring the conflict zone but, we know from experience, these weapons can be trafficked to other continents. We have seen this in the Balkan region. We have seen this in many theaters in Africa, and of course many criminal organizations try to exploit the chaotic situation, the availability of weapons, including military weapons”.
The German is right to make this precision. The access of Ukrainian arms traffickers, such as Viktor Melnyk in the area of the Triple Border (Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil), has enabled Brazilian mafia groups to equip themselves with military weapons to carry out increasingly more violent, going far beyond the use of automatic weapons, specific to organized crime. Their arsenal is being militarized. The same thing is observed in the Mexican cartels. All this evolution began to be felt in 2015-2016.
The tradition of Ukrainian arms trafficking dates back to the XIXe century, with Basil Zaharoff, who inspired the character of Basil Bazaroff, in the opus ” the broken ear ” of Tintin. Bazaroff is the spitting image of Zaharoff. The weapons of the latter killed millions of people. Among other things, they made possible the genocide known as the Chaco War between Paraguay and Argentina. Zaharoff will have strewn his century of conflicts to make possible his business, which will not prevent him from dying in his bed, multimillionaire and holder of the Legion of Honor.