Not sure just what to make of this. According to TheBlaze.com and the AP, 300 German police officers staged a raid of the Berlin HQ of Heckler & Koch on Thursday, citing allegations that the German arms manufacturer bribed Mexican officials, using cash payments for deliveries between 2005 and 2010. Really?
The deeper we get into the quagmire that is Mexico, the more strange things seem to get. Could that “river of guns” headwaters be located in Germany, and could it be floating on the green waters of Euros?
Previously, H&K was under the scope for allegedly providing G36 assault rifles to Mexican Police in Chiapas, Chihuahua, Guerrero and Jalisco. German law prohibits exports of weapons to countries accused of human rights violations. Germany allows exports of weapons to much of Mexico, but not to the four states in question. The company denies any wrongdoing. H&K is also under investigation for shipments of rifles to Libya. According to company sources, the weapons found in Libya were part of a 2003 shipment bound for Egypt. H&K refuses to confirm or deny reports that a son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi paid a visit to H&K’s headquarters in 2003.
H&K has stated that they are cooperating fully with German prosecutors in both cases.
So what are we to make of this? Is H&K operating in the gray areas of the law, in order to increase profits at the expense of the lives of Mexican citizens? Could this be a perfectly innocent deal, or a situation where some sales rep, trying to make quota, got his tail in a wringer, leaving his company’s ass swinging in the wind? I dunno. But if you were to exchange “German Police” for “ATF” and “H&K” with any American weapons manufacturer, imagine what kind of headlines we’d be seeing from this side of the Atlantic. Of course, over here, it’s not the companies that are selling weapons to the narco-terrorists, corrupt police, and even more-corrupt governments.
That’s the ATF’s gig.
The big difference is that H&K were selling to the legitimate government of Mexico and its political subdivisions. And, of course, bribery is the required manner of government contracting down ol’ Mexico way.
“Contracting” yes, that’s a good word to describe the way of doing business south of the border.
Viva la Mordida? It’s the 20% to 1,000% ‘tax’ that accompanies most government functions in our failed neighbor to the south..
We sell plenty of guns to legitimate government entities. A large chunk of the ones we sell to the Mexican military still ends up in cartels’ hands.
The thing that seemed strange to me is that the four Mexican states they are accused of selling to are apparently the only states that Germany bans importation to in Mexico.
Bribery in mexico is just the way they say hello, im sure h&k was just respecting there culture.
Or… H&K did nothing wrong and this is a move by the German Government to discredit a weapons manufactuar and support the U.N. and their attempt s to control weapon ownership.
Not that I believe this, but it should be considered (especially if you’re willing to consider that the U.S. Government and the ATF are using Gunwalker to push for further gun control legislation).
There is a write-up about this in The Local DE:
http://www.thelocal.de/national/20111110-38789.html
From that report:
“Although it has not yet responded directly to Thursday’s raid, Heckler and Koch has previously insisted all of its operations in Mexico were legal.
In its last statement on the matter, dated March 10, it said the company “never paid a cent of bribe money to Mexican officials to support the sales of the products. The allegation of bribery has been launched by a group of persons including a former H&K employee who is now working for a competing company.” “
An alternate title could read: “Zimmerman telegram 2.0?” .
Interesting to see where the money goes down in Mexico.
Only discriminating drug dealers use HKs, none of that stinking AK and AR stuff at this organization! When only the best will do, only the best for you, HK arms for you!
See, we need to just cut Mexico off from the rest of the world until they get their house in order and agree to play nice with other countries. No trade, no tourists, nothing – utterly isolate them. They’d change their attitude pretty quick.
Let me guess… German police were using HK firearms. Talk about irony…
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