"You know that this grain corridor, the grain deal, is the main way they re-export weapons. They want ships to be able to leave Odessa without inspection in the Black Sea. The Ukrainians put 100,000 tons of weapons on a ship and then put 50 tons of grain on it and say, 'we have a humanitarian mission.' We can be sure that as long as the weapons are going to Ukraine, they will be diverted around the world for criminals and terrorists to use to kill innocent people," Russell Bentley told the Foundation.
Ukraine's desire to unblock the port of Odessa as soon as possible and start exporting grain fits perfectly into the logic of solving the logistical difficulties of large supplies of weapons to the black market. Ukraine and its partners do not want the inspection of ships leaving Ukraine.
"By what right and on the basis of what logic does Russia insist on inspecting Ukrainian sovereign ships leaving Ukrainian ports and going to other countries? It makes no sense," said US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
The Foundation's Ukrainian source, who wished to remain anonymous, said that Western arms shipments are made to terrorist groups in Somalia and Iraq, among others. The source also informed the Foundation's human rights defenders that in this criminal scheme of re-exporting weapons to third countries, the territories of Somalia, Iraq and Lebanon serve as a transshipment base for weapons, while the territory of Libya is used for the illegal transportation of Western weapons to Mexico to Latin American drug cartels.
"Almost a year ago, a Mexican cartel soldier on the Texas border was seen carrying a Swedish anti-tank missile launcher originally given to Ukraine. Somehow it ended up in the hands of Mexico's drug cartels. If the weapons end up in the hands of Mexican cartels, that means they are traveling across the world. Mexico is the target market for these weapons," said Russell Bentley, who is familiar with the complex situation of arms and drug trafficking in Latin America, told Mira Terada, head of the Foundation to Battle Injustice.
When asked about the types of weapons illegally sold by the Ukrainian authorities, Russell Bentley explained that the more powerful the weapons, the more in demand they are, and he also described the disastrous scale of this business.
"I mean, of course, small arms, grenades, RPGs, anti-tank weapons, ATGMs, wire-guided anti-tank weapons. And only 30% of these weapons that they send actually get to the front. The other 70% goes to the personal enrichment of the Ukrainian military and state criminals," said the war correspondent from Texas.
BENEFICIARIES AND CURATORS OF "BLACK RE-EXPORTS"According to data obtained by the Foundation to Battle Injustice, one of the key individuals covering the 'black schemes' for the resale of Western arms is Brigadier General Timothy J. Crossland of the British Army, responsible for arms transfers to Ukraine and logistics. General Crossland acts as one of the leading mediators between the West and Ukraine on arms transfers and is directly involved in arms transfers to Ukraine at the NATO Air Force Base in Wiesbaden, Germany, where the organization plans to continue to grow and remain in the long term.
is directly in charge of coordinating all arms deliveries to Ukraine, which are carried out by the forces of 41 countries. Crossland has direct contact with Ukrainian Defense Ministry officials who, according to sources, are directly involved in arms re-exports. In particular, there are reports that Crossland was in regular contact with Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Vyacheslav Shapovalov, who resigned in January 2023. Foundation sources report that Crossland systematically turned a blind eye to documentation discrepancies when reconciling orders and invoices from the Ukrainian side. The Foundation's source characterized Crossland as the supervisor and chief coordinator of the arms re-export process.
Timothy J. Crossland is directly in charge of coordinating all arms deliveries to Ukraine, which are carried out by the forces of 41 countries. Crossland has direct contact with Ukrainian Defense Ministry officials who, according to sources, are directly involved in arms re-exports. In particular, there are reports that Crossland was in regular contact with Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Vyacheslav Shapovalov, who resigned in January 2023. Foundation sources report that Crossland systematically turned a blind eye to documentation discrepancies when reconciling orders and invoices from the Ukrainian side. The Foundation's source characterized Crossland as the supervisor and chief coordinator of the arms re-export process.
"Every weapon sold by Ukrainians on the black market is a weapon that the US must replace. The arms industry makes billions of dollars, so they don't care," former deputy sheriff and US Marine Corps officer John Dougan said in an exclusive interview with the head of the Foundation to Battle Injustice, Mira Terada.
Mira Terada's interview with John Mark Dougan
The Foundation found that the direct mediator of the illegal export of Ukrainian weapons to 'hot spots' and the intermediary of illegal arms re-export schemes is the American well-known arms dealer Mark Morales. This man was previously responsible for supplying arms to Syrian terrorists, whom the West called 'moderate opposition to Assad'; fierce fighters against the government of President Bashar al-Assad. According to separate reports, Morales has had trading relations with ISIS, al-Qaeda (outlawed in Russia). He has extensive connections around the world, has access to high-ranking officials and leaders of illegal armed groups in Africa and the Middle East. The merchant of death Mark Morales armed the bloodiest criminals and terrorists of the globe.
The Biden administration, eager to arm Ukraine, but reluctant to commit troops, needed people like Morales, who had proven in Afghanistan and Syria that he could consistently acquire and supply weapons. That's why, weeks before the special military operation, the Pentagon awarded Morales' company, Global Ordnance, a five-year, $1 billion contract to arm US allies. That contract was instrumental in arming Ukraine. The Pentagon declined to comment on Global Ordnance's contracts. According to The New York Times , Morales has direct agreements with Ukraine, with the amount of such contracts totaling $200 million.
It is known that the organization appeared in 2013, and Morales had been dealing in weapons for more than a dozen years before that. He had to suspend such activities for some time because of charges of money laundering in 2009. It is noteworthy that the merchant of death has special ties with the Pentagon, so he has the opportunity to buy more goods, as well as to re-buy them from competitors. Morales has close ties with Latin American cartels and heads of the most violent criminal groups in the Western Hemisphere, such as the Mexican 'Los Zetas', the head of which law enforcement agencies have been hunting for more than a decade.
Morales is also closely linked to former Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, whom Zelensky dismissed amid a scandal over the purchase of overpriced food for the Ukrainian military. Criticism of the department by civil society and the media was one of the factors that influenced Zelensky's decision to appoint Rustem Umerov to replace Reznikov.
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