I know this is an old post, but I have a family member that works in construction who sometimes shares rumors/tidbits that he picks up from conversations. Last year there were rumors about some cartel having Chinese personnel that acted as armorers for that group. The gist of the rumor was the way cartel members used to test fire their AK's (or Horn of Goat).
Initially the standard practice for cartel personnel was to pull the trigger and fire a shot; in order to test trigger function. To me this would indicate that the group was mainly exposed to semi-auto imports. After that group got the Chinese armorers, cartel personnel were supposedly discouraged from testing the trigger as, "they would empty the magazine". I always figured that this change in behavior, marked some sort of new evolution in technology available to them. Maybe a new chain of supply coming from a state sponsored source.
To be blunt, I am curious to see where the weapons and munitions originated from. Most of the raw chemicals that are used to manufacture meth are coming in from China. If they can get tons of drug making material into Mexico, why not people and equipment? Setting small brush-fires in our backyard does ties up resources that could be going elsewhere, which works out for the Chinese.
I don't know. Sometimes I wonder if the Chinese aren't fanning the flames or outright providing direct aid to radical Islam. In the long run, I think that they ultimately benefit from letting radical Islam run amok. Heck, it givens them an excuse to crack down on internal dissidence and expand their global footprint; all in the name of "the greater good". Their weapons and tech have spread all through the SE Asia and Africa. They're mining for minerals all over conflict zones, still providing support for the DPRK, and goodness knows what else. Whatever their long term goals are, they scare the crap out of me.
If I am out of my lane, I'll be quiet.
