Arms and the Dudes

Guy Lawson's Arms and the Dudes is the page-turning, inside account of how three kids from Florida became big-time weapons traders - and how the US government turned on them.In January of 2007, three young stoners from Miami Beach won a $300 million Department of Defense contract to supply ammunition to the Afghanistan military. Instead of fulfilling the order with high-quality arms, they bought cheap Communist-style surplus ammunition from Balkan gunrunners. The dudes then secretly repackaged millions of rounds of shoddy Chinese ammunition and shipped it to Kabul-until they were caught by Pentagon investigators and the scandal turned up on the front page of The New York Times.That's the 'official' story. The truth is far more explosive. It's a trip that goes from a dive apartment in Miami Beach to mountain caves in Albania, the corridors of power in Washington, and the frontlines of Iraq and Afghanistan. This is a story you were never meant to read.

Guy Lawson's Arms and the Dudes is the page-turning, inside account of how three kids from Florida became big-time weapons traders - and how the US government turned on them.In January of 2007, three young stoners from Miami Beach won a $300 million Department of Defense contract to supply ammunition to the Afghanistan military. Instead of fulfilling the order with high-quality arms, they bought cheap Communist-style surplus ammunition from Balkan gunrunners. The dudes then secretly repackaged millions of rounds of shoddy Chinese ammunition and shipped it to Kabul-until they were caught by Pentagon investigators and the scandal turned up on the front page of The New York Times.That's the 'official' story. The truth is far more explosive. It's a trip that goes from a dive apartment in Miami Beach to mountain caves in Albania, the corridors of power in Washington, and the frontlines of Iraq and Afghanistan. This is a story you were never meant to read.