Silk Way Airlines

Weapons for terrorists

In July 2017 an investigation[14] by the leading Bulgarian daily newspaper Trud, which has a reputation for investigative crime reporting[15] revealed how Silk Way Airlines exploited a loophole in the international aviation and transport regulations to offer flights to arms manufacturers and private companies – with much of the cargo heading for known terrorist enclaves in Syria, but also to other conflict zones including Central Asia and Africa. Under the International Air Transport Association (IATA) regulations, the transport of military cargo by civil aircraft is not allowed. To get around this legality, Silk Way Airlines applied for diplomatic exemption for aircraft and their cargo (diplomatic charter flights) through local agencies to transport heavy weapons, ammunition and white phosphorus across the world to several war zones such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria and as well as to African countries like Congo and Burkina Faso.[16][17][18][19]

The published documents included correspondence between the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of Azerbaijan to Bulgaria with attached documents for weapons deals and diplomatic clearance for overflight and/or landing in Bulgaria and many other European countries, USA, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Turkey and other countries. The documents disclosed that American weapons manufacturers had shipped over $1 billion of weapons through Silk Way Airlines, corporate subcontractors included ?Purple Shovel LLC ? based in Sterling, Virginia, US Department of Defense subcontracting vehicle ?Culmen International LLC ? based in Alexandria, weapons and defense procurement firm ?Chemring Military Products ? based in Perry, Florida. When Silk Way Airlines did not have enough available planes, Azerbaijan’s Air Force jets would transport the military shipments. In the investigation the reporter accused responsible authorities of many countries (Israel, Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Turkey, as well as to the militaries of Saudi Arabia, UAE, the military forces of Germany and Denmark in Afghanistan and of Sweden in Iraq, and the US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM)) to "have turned a blind eye and allowed diplomatic flights for the transport of tons of weapons, carried out by civil aircrafts [sic] for military needs."[14][20][21]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Way_Airlines#Weapons_for_terrorists