Chapter 459 Yemen Arms Exchange

Zingibbar is a port city near the Gulf of Aden in the southern part of the Yemeni Republic. In the whole Republic of Yemen, Zimbabwe is not a famous port, because a hundred kilometers away, there is another largest port in Yemen - Aden.

Although Jinjibar Port is not famous, Jinjibar is well-known in the underground arms trading market of the whole world. It is currently the second largest arms smuggling center in the world after Miami in the United States, and the largest underground military trading market in the world.

Here, you can see hawkers carrying guns and ammunition shouting back and forth in the streets and alleys, and you can also see a store full of weapons neatly arranged like small arsenals. If you are lucky enough, you can still see armored vehicles driving through the streets under the protection of a large group of militants... Anyway, here, don't think it's New York. If you are not interested in weapons, then I'm sorry, there are no other attractions for you to see here.

The underground weapons black market in Zingibbar traces its origin to the war between Yemen and Saudi Arabia in 1934. Since the defeat of the war in Yemen, Britain has taken the opportunity to coerce Yemen to sign many unequal contracts. At that time, countless Yemeni began to fight for armed resistance. The geographically disparity of the port of Zimbabwe has naturally become the main source of weapons for armed forces.

After decades of development, the black market for weapons in Zimbabwe has become 'right', just like Macau, a Chinese casino, where any arms trade is legal. Even more than a decade after the unification of the north and the south of the Republic of Yemen, the Yemeni authorities have not carried out any removal of the arms trade here. However, in order to obtain huge taxes on the arms trade, the tax point set up by the Yemeni authorities in Zinjibar specifically for the arms trade provides hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes for Yemen's finances every year. This is still the case of tax evasion in most transactions.

As a paradise for underground arms dealers, Zingibar's arms trading has gradually formed an organization - an exchange. If you don't know the name, you will think it's a stock exchange or something, but she is really an institution that manages underground arms trading.

In the exchange, there is a relatively strict organizational division. For all arms trading organizations or arms dealers in Zingiba, the exchange will remind them to register and provide fund accounts. This is mainly for bulk arms trading services, but it is also easy to manage and does not make this legalized arms trading market. The scene is chaotic.

On this day, three off-road vehicles came outside a very modern building in the northern suburbs of Jinjibar. After Li Mo got out of the car, he looked at most of the pedestrians around him in suits and leather shoes or directly wearing a camouflage suit. He couldn't help sighing that it was really 'weird' here.

"Boss, this ten-story building is the largest arms exchange in Zimbabwe and the only trading market on the exchange. Here, customers come and go every day all over the world. It is mainly non-political axe armed forces and small state organizations in various places. Of course, the main body here is still underground arms dealers..." The mouse stood on Li Mo's side and introduced it to the boss.

After a group of people entered the exchange, Li Mo first felt that it was big. Yes, it's just a big word. The first floor is a huge space, which makes him feel like the lobby of an international airport. Looking up, it was all human heads. LCD screens are installed on the three walls of the hall, and the red scrolling font shows today's various weapon models and transaction prices.

"Is this...is this really an underground arms exchange?" Li Mo opened his mouth slightly, with the smell of entering the Grand View Garden. Before Li Mo came, his idea was that the underground arms trade should be in a dark warehouse, where the two groups of people secretly met, and then looked at the weapons to pay. But this is similar to the stock exchange. Although all the weapons were not seen in kind, he also knew from the mouse's words that as long as they were displayed on the LCD screen, they were all weapons held by today's exchange or arms dealers registered on the exchange, that is, weapons that need to be sold.

This exchange is like an auction. Arms dealers around the world bring their weapons to the exchange for registration. The weapons must be under the care of the exchange and the arms dealers themselves. After registering, these weapons will be entered into the exchange's sales list through the computer, and then displayed on the LCD screen here. If someone is in favor of a certain weapon and thinks the price is appropriate, they can ask the staff here to buy it. At this time, the staff will verify whether the buyer's funds are sufficient. If sufficient, a certain weapon that the buyer is looking for will be temporarily shielded from the LCD screen. The buyer and the arms dealer who provided the weapon are waiting to trade in the presence of the exchange staff. When the transaction is completed, the buyer pays and withdraws the arms. Note that at this time, the buyer will transfer the money to the exchange account, and then the exchange will deduct 1% of the commission before it will be transferred to the account registered by the arms dealer on the exchange. In this way, a arms transaction will be completed.

"I'm good, it's really troublesome. And every transaction has to charge a 1% commission, so how much does this exchange earn a day? Luo Xiang, who followed Li Mo, couldn't help but be shocked. Looking at the queues in front of the 10 sales windows, I know that the daily turnover here is not small.

The mouse nodded and whispered, "This exchange is said to be controlled by a political axe, which was not the case before. In the past, it was founded by several large arms dealers and local ethnic groups. According to a few friends I know here, the highest daily trading volume of the exchange since its establishment is 360 million US dollars.

Now not only Luo Xiang, but also Li Mo's face showed a moving look. With a turnover of 360 million US dollars and a commission of 3.6 million US dollars, this is only a day's income. So how much should it be in a year? Perhaps, this number is nothing in some economically developed countries, but where is it? Yemen! A country with an annual GDP of only 15 billion US dollars, with an annual revenue of at least several tens of US dollars is also a huge figure. And the cost of this income is almost insignificant.

Aside from the economic benefits, this exchange has brought great benefits to the Republic of Yemen. If an arms dealer brings a batch of the world's advanced weapons, the Republic of Yemen can first buy this batch of weapons and equipment for the Yemeni army without registration.

"Let's go and see what we need!" Li Mo sighed in his heart, resisted the impulse to occupy his own, and ordered the mouse.

The mouse nodded. He had been here many times and was no longer impulsive. After receiving the order, he immediately took Li Mo and others to a small corner on the right.

A group of people came to a display screen and looked up to see the 'missile series weapons' written in Arabic and English above the display screen.

Here, the arms sold are divided by type. First of all, it is naturally divided into sea, land and air. Then it is subdivided according to actual use. For example, the display screen under the missile series weapons shows all kinds of missile weapons, regardless of whether the missile is an anti-aircraft missile, an air-to-air missile or an anti-ship missile. If the air series is shown above, then there will be fighters, air-to-ground missiles, helicopters and so on in the display screen. If it is a land series, there will be all kinds of armored vehicles, surface-to-air missiles and so on. Each weapon may appear in several different classification displays.

In the display screen of the missile series of weapons, there are not many types of missile weapons scrolling, and the number is not very large. After all, this kind of weapon is not a 'conventional weapon'. Most of the buyers here are armed with non-political axes from all over the world, and few of them can afford this kind of precious weapon.

Li Mo looked up at the display screen for a while before he saw the goal of coming here: Dapudong I (level 3 propulsion) Dapudong I is a medium-range ballistic missile researched and produced by North Korea. In 1998, North Korea conducted the first Daepo-dong I missile launch test. At that time, it was a 2-stage propulsion of Dapu Cave 1, with a range of 1700-2200 kilometers and a warhead weight of about 700-1000 kg. At this time, the display screen shows an extended-range ballistic missile with a third-level solid fuel propulsion on the basis of Dapudong I. The range is about 4000-6000 kilometers. However, because of the secret surname of North Korea's military industry, the outside world still speculates about its range, but the range of the United States and other countries is almost the same. In fact, the range of the extended-range ballistic missile is almost so far.

Li Mo is here for this kind of ballistic missile. The purpose is naturally to find a carrier for the nuclear warhead in the base. In the absence of strategic bombers, Li Mo had to load nuclear warheads with ballistic missiles. Internationally, missiles are the core weapons that can be developed by a few countries. It is rarely revealed from the outside world. When the former Soviet Union disintegrated, many advanced weapons, including nuclear warheads, were exposed, but ballistic missiles were rarely heard of. Even if there were ballistic missiles exposed at that time, Li Mo estimated that it must have been decomposed in a secret research institute of a certain country now.

With North Korea's domestic political form and extreme regime's domestic control, this kind of North Korea's high-end weapon should not be revealed; Li Mo believes that even if the U.S. F-22 appears here, it is surprising that there are no North Korea's missiles here. If he hadn't received the news in advance, he would not have believed that North Korea's high-end weapons would appear in the underground arms market thousands of miles away.

"Boss, do we really want to buy it?" The mouse looked at the price behind Dapudong I and asked hesitantly.

The unit price is 30 million US dollars, and there is only one of this Dapudong I medium-range ballistic missile. The mouse feels heartbroken at the thought of this number. 30 million US dollars is enough to equip a regiment's Lion King infantry chariot. Now I bought a missile and launched a weapon with nothing.

Li Mo didn't pay attention to this, in his opinion. Although the price exceeds the actual value of the missile. But it must be that the exchange knows the effect of this missile on other countries. Many countries, such as the United States and South Korea, have always had a great 'interest' in North Korea's ballistic missiles. Now there is a missile. As long as you spend 30 million US dollars to buy it back and study it, you can naturally know North Korea's long-range strike capability and make corresponding defense. For the United States, Japan and South Korea, 30 million US dollars can calculate North Korea's long-range strike capability, which is still very cheap. But this is exactly what Li Mo found strange. He doesn't believe that other countries don't know about this trading market. There must be secret intelligence personnel in every country here. Why hasn't anyone bought this missile for a few days?

(to be continued)