Saturday, December 26, 2009
O, what a tangled web we weave
And Robbie Burns was thinking of a simpler times when he wrote those words. The AP has put together a trail of companies involved in the shipment of North Korean arms that were seized in Thailand.
Thai authorities' high-profile inspection of 35 tons of North Korean weapons was nearing completion Friday, as clues emerging around the world shed light on the business of arms trafficking — and the lengths smugglers take to hide their identities.The trail uncovered so far touches many parts of the globe and they still don't know everything. And this was only one planeload.
Two weeks after Thai authorities impounded the aircraft and arrested its five-man crew, the key questions of who organized the shipment and where it was headed remain unanswered.
But a trail of companies and fake addresses from New Zealand to Barcelona has illustrated how the traffickers bounced around the globe to lightly regulated countries to disguise their movements. Over the past few months, they created a complex web of holding companies that facilitated the flight in an apparent effort to evade U.N. sanctions on North Korea.
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