06/05/18 -- International News, June 2018

Shanghai — An international task force is left with numerous questions today, as the dismembered remains of a man found floating in Taihu Lake were positively identified as international arms dealer Guan Ying Li. Li was the target of an international investigation in illegal arms smuggling that started in 2011 and was believed to be a critical piece of unraveling a trail of arms suppliers that fed weapons to the Mazdak Group during their rise to power in 2008.

While many in the international community believed that Mazdak received most of its arms from stolen American and allied weapons caches during the failed occupation of Iraq, an investigation coordinated by Interpol has shed light on a connection to Chinese arms dealers specializing in military-grade hardware.

Li's death means a significant hurdle in the investigation. This, coming six weeks after Praxis Heavy Industries CEO Ju-long Lung-Wei spoke before an international committee on the dangers of military hardware proliferation among criminal organizations. Lung-Wei's company has come under fire this year after allegations that they too supplied arms to Mazdak in 2010 first came to light. Praxis Heavy Industries claims that the weapons identified in reconnaissance photographs, which include HQ-9 active radar homing surface-to-air missile platforms, were seized unlawfully by Mazdak when their production facility on the border of Iraq and Kuwait was raided during the Mazdak surge in 2010.

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