I do remember that scandal —the ATF called it Operation Dragon Fire, and it was in 1996, or so.
DiFi’s husband had and has connections with Poly Technologies (which is simply an arms division of the ChiComz), and the scandal primarily centered on importation of 2,000 fully automatic AK-47’s into the US:
The intended end-users were STREET GANGS in Los Angeles. They wanted to make money while sowing violent chaos in our country.
Few realize that the scandal also involved ANTI-AIRCRAFT MISSILES, and that we narrowly missed arresting either a major Chinese or Diplomat who was then inside the USA and handing the biz on this side of the Pacific.
The scandal got so huge that the State Department deliberately tipped off the guy, and he fled the USA. Thus the State Dept succeeded in heading off the then-impending Diplomatic crisis.
I remember that it was Blum’s connection with the ChiComs that permitted them to store the AK’s at some port facility in Long Beach, which was later also sold to the ChiComs.
DIANE FEINSTEIN HAS MAJOR CONNECTIONS TO CHINESE ARMS SUPPLIERS.
That woman hates, “AR’s” but apparently loves AK’s.
She is a hypocritical insect, loaded to the gills with Chinese money, and her SF house is totally amazing.
HN5 Red Parakeet:
This is the Chinese model that was part of DiFi's husband's big Los Angeles/China arms scandal with Norinco in 1996, Operation Dragon Fire.
This MANPADS is basically a low-cost Chinese copy of the Soviet SA-14 Grail anti-aircraft missile.
To throw NSA guys off the trail during their phone calls, the Chinese operatives referred to these missiles as "poppers". I believe that they called the AK's, "barrels", or something.
The equipment involved in Operation Dragon Fire shadows the patterns we observed in the gear involved in transfer of Libyan weapons to Syrian, "rebels".
Correction: “POPPERS” was the smuggler spook-speak for, “GRENADES”.
ANATOMY OF A STING http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,135999,00.html
By MICHAEL S. SERRILL
Jun. 3, 1996
Maybe it was his Runyonesque swagger, or the 6-ft. 6-in., 350-lb. former football linebacker who served as his bodyguard, or his expert craft, which included hiding a key in a potted plant. Whatever the case, Gary Hipple, a U.S. Customs agent based in San Francisco, convinced a group of Chinese arms dealers that he was a Mafia big shot who was in the market to buy guns for drug rings and street gangs. By the time the undercover deal was over, Hipple and his partner, a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent who also posed as a mobster, had persuaded the brokers to smuggle 2,000 fully automatic Chinese-government-made AK-47s into the U.S.
Last week (May 1996), the charade ended with an explosion of headlines (what ‘explosion’ of headlines?), as Customs and ATF agents arrested seven people for illegal gunrunning. U.S. Attorney Michael Yamaguchi described the sting operation as the largest seizure of fully operational automatic weapons in U.S. history! (Why did 60 minutes and Nightline ignore this story???)
The diplomatically sensitive source of the guns: two state-owned arms manufacturers in China, Poly Technologies and Norinco. The president of Poly Technologies, a defense corporation controlled by the People’s Liberation Army, is He Ping, the son-in-law of Deng Xiaoping.
The operation began in 1994, when an informant told Hipple that a Taiwanese businessman named Hammond Ku was looking for ways to circumvent Customs. Hipple arranged a meeting and to impress Ku took along fellow agent and former Green Bay Packer Byron Braggs. Ku allegedly set up a test: he had a suitcase of weapons parts flown from China to the San Francisco airport. Hipple duly carried the case past Customs and stashed it in a locker, telling Ku he would find the key in a nearby potted plant.
With that, the sting was on. According to a 34-page criminal complaint filed in San Francisco’s U.S. District Court in May of 1996, Hipple helped Ku smuggle in 20,000 machine-gun stands (bipods, you journalistic ‘geek’...). Ku then told the agent to fax his weapons wish list to Ku’s secretary, using code words: “apples” for automatic weapons; “Alpha Kings” for AK-47s; “poppers” for grenades. Later, a Florida ATF agent was introduced to Ku as an arms dealer interested in machine guns. Eventually the undercover team negotiated an order for 2,000 AK-47s. They paid Ku and his associates $700,000 in cash and wire transfers to Beijing and Hong Kong bank accounts.
Ku made clear that he was acting as a middleman for Chinese arms dealers, including Robert Ma, head of U.S. sales for Poly Technologies, and Richard Chen, U.S. representative for Norinco. It was Ma, according to last week’s complaint, who arranged for shipment of the rifles. They arrived in San Francisco aboard a Chinese freighter on March 18, 1996.
Once the transaction was completed, according to court papers, Ku reported that his contacts at Norinco were eager to continue. Customs agents say Ku offered a variety of larger arms, including surface-to-air missiles that he boasted “could take out a 747.” Customs didn’t have any more money to spend but delayed making arrests. “We were trying to lure the large business figures [in China] to the States,” says Rollin Klink, head of Customs in San Francisco.
Officials finally sprung the trap after learning that the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times were on to the sting. (Gee, it’s not like Bill Clinton ordered a ‘LEAK’ in order to COMPROMISE THE FEDERAL INVESTIGATION, RIGHT...)
Still, one important figure, Ma, is at large and may have escaped to China. (Of course Clinton made sure Ma escaped, as Ma would tie Clinton to this $8 million dollar AK-47 deal...) Ku and Chen are under arrest, along with several Chinese and American collaborators.