Thread by @steffanwatkins

How do conventional weapons make it across borders to fuel the world's dirty wars? Let @dgaytandzhieva show you.

https://twitter.com/ArmsWatch_/status/1141210448060133377

@dgaytandzhieva I've been looking at ships and planes for yrs, and I certainly haven't seen everything, or know half of what's covertly being moved, but I see certain similarities.
One thing is consistent, shipments of licit and illicit arms are business, and business leaves a paper trail.

A quick look nets ~31 planes that are registered to Silk Way Airlines, as well as their most obvious shell companies in Azerbaijan.

How many of those have flown in the past year, and where are they flying to?

If Silk Way is being used as some sort of CIA/etc cover in Azerbaijan to operate outside of FAA and public scrutiny (as they did with extraordinary rendition; sending people to be tortured at intl black sites) the flights should land in hotspots suspected of CIA activity, right?

Also, no western government issues one bid for one contract to one sketchy company only once, and then recompetes the next bid. They use the same companies over and over. If Silk Way is being used by the CIA, it's being used by many other departments, and other countries...

...like Canada. It seems Silk Way was being used to transport military cargo by the Canadian Department of National Defence in 2007; how do I know? 4K-AZ41 hit the fence at #CFBTrenton while landing in the fog.

#4KAZ41
aviation-safety.net/database/recor…

Any Canadian (HELLO JOURNALISTS) interested in the rest of the information about the Canadian Government's dealings with Silk Road Airlines (and their shell companies) could be requested via ATIP (if you have years to wait for a response - good luck.)

On the very surface this suggests to me that the company is in good standing internationally with NATO governments, are are not barred from bidding on contracts from the Canadian Government. They're in our good books, and can even land at #RCAF air bases.

🇦🇿 Silk Way Airlines Ilyushin IL-76 TD reg. 4K-AZ31|#60081F flight-data.adsbexchange.com/activity?input… 📷 2010-11-10 jetphotos.com/photo/7509149

🇦🇿 Silk Way Airlines Ilyushin IL-76 TD reg. 4K-AZ40|#600828 flight-data.adsbexchange.com/activity?input… 📷 2018-01-17 jetphotos.com/photo/8842724

🇦🇿 Silk Way Airlines Ilyushin IL-76 TD reg. 4K-AZ41|#600829 flight-data.adsbexchange.com/activity?input… 📷 2019-02-08 jetphotos.com/photo/9247189

🇦🇿 Silk Way Airlines Ilyushin IL-76 TD reg. 4K-AZ60|#60083C flight-data.adsbexchange.com/activity?input… 📷 2017-09-18 jetphotos.com/photo/9291687

🇦🇿 Silk Way Airlines Ilyushin IL-76 TD-90SW reg. 4K-AZ100|#600864 flight-data.adsbexchange.com/activity?input… 📷 2019-08-16 jetphotos.com/photo/9423358

🇦🇿 Silk Way Airlines Ilyushin IL-76 TD-90SW reg. 4K-AZ101|#600865 flight-data.adsbexchange.com/activity?input… 📷 2019-07-27 jetphotos.com/photo/9421176

🇦🇿 Silk Way West Airlines Boeing 747 4R7F reg. 4K-SW888|#600B21 flight-data.adsbexchange.com/activity?input… 📷 2019-07-24 jetphotos.com/photo/9402555

🇦🇿 Silk Way West Airlines Boeing 747 4R7F reg. 4K-SW008|#600BBE flight-data.adsbexchange.com/activity?input… 📷 2019-08-03 jetphotos.com/photo/9405099

🇦🇿 SW Business Aviation Airbus ACJ319 115X reg. 4K-JJ88|#600BC5 flight-data.adsbexchange.com/activity?input… 📷 2018-08-27 jetphotos.com/photo/9058005

🇦🇿 SW Business Aviation Avions de Transport Regional ATR 42 500 reg. 4K-AZ808|#600B28 flight-data.adsbexchange.com/activity?input… 📷 2018-03-22 jetphotos.com/photo/8901133

🇦🇿 SW Business Aviation Gulfstream Aerospace G200 reg. 4K-AZ88|#600858 flight-data.adsbexchange.com/activity?input… 📷 2018-10-24 jetphotos.com/photo/9165359

🇦🇿 SW Business Aviation Gulfstream Aerospace G280 reg. 4K-AZ208|#6008D0 flight-data.adsbexchange.com/activity?input… 📷 2016-03-19 jetphotos.com/photo/8236369

🇦🇿 SW Business Aviation Gulfstream Aerospace G280 reg. 4K-AZ280|#600918 flight-data.adsbexchange.com/activity?input… 📷 2014-08-06 jetphotos.com/photo/7887339

🇦🇿 SW Business Aviation Gulfstream Aerospace G450 reg. 4K-AZ888|#600B78 flight-data.adsbexchange.com/activity?input… 📷 2019-03-30 jetphotos.com/photo/9277777

🇦🇿 SW Business Aviation Gulfstream Aerospace G550 reg. 4K-AI06|#600806 flight-data.adsbexchange.com/activity?input… 📷 2019-07-04 jetphotos.com/photo/9375024

🇦🇿 SW Business Aviation Gulfstream Aerospace G550 reg. 4K-MEK8|#600808 flight-data.adsbexchange.com/activity?input… 📷 2018-02-17 jetphotos.com/photo/8867173

🇦🇿 SW Business Aviation Gulfstream Aerospace G650 reg. 4K-AI88|#600BC4 flight-data.adsbexchange.com/activity?input… 📷 2019-01-23 jetphotos.com/photo/9256319

Those are all the Silk Way aircraft that I could find with ADSBexchange flight history; I didn't review FlightRadar24, but they should be visible there too.

Baku, Erbil, Tiblisi, Bugas, Bagdad... certainly sounds like a list of places the CIA would be ferrying things covertly. Oh sorry, I'm sure they're just moving shipments of refrigerators and televisions, it couldn't possibly be weapons shipments... haha.

https://twitter.com/avischarf/status/996827823087194113

I do remember Avi and others discussing these; this isn't "new" news, just under-reported, and I hadn't done the deep dive into which planes were doing the moving. (I want to make sure nobody thinks I'm breaking news, just reminding and adding detail)

https://twitter.com/avischarf/status/1000460995431731201?s=20

The 747 that is 4K-SW888 today;

Bought by Cargolux Airlines International as LX-NCV in 1999
Sold to Silk Way Airlines in 2011 (4K-SW888)
Sold to Silk Way West Airlines in 2012 (4K-SW888)
Sold to SW Ital in 2017 (I-SWIB)
Sold to Silk Way West Airlines in 2018 same reg, 4K-SW888

Airframe history for another Silk Way 747; 4K-SW008
Bought by Cargolux Airlines International in 1999 (LX-PCV)
Sold to Silk Way Airlines 2008
Sold back to Cargolux Airlines International in 2010
Sold to Silk Way West Airlines in 2012

Who is Cargolux Airlines International?

Oh, nifty.

Silk Way West actually has 8 Cargo 747s, only two are registered in Azerbaijan.
planelogger.com/Airline/Fleet/…

...the other SIX are registered in Barbados.

(VP-BCR, VQ-BBH, VQ-BBM, VQ-BVB, VQ-BVC, VQ-BWY)

Seems legit.

In case you were not aware, normal companies don't sell their planes to themselves in a shell game of ownership. There's nothing illegal about it, but you won't find an Air Canada plane being sold back to itself every year or two. It's unusual, not illegal.

Oh, here we go...

occrp.org/en/investigati…

So we have a multinational cargo company accused of smuggling arms to US-allies, buying up 747s with loan money guaranteed by the US Gov't for unknown reasons, whose top-level ownership is unclear, and not documented in UN Fed documents that require it to be. 1/

*US Fed

BUT *I* would be labelled a conspiracy theorist if I said it was the CIA was involved or used this as a shell company / front for their smuggling of weapons.

Sure.

2/2

Following the activities of Silk Way Airlines in foreign countries is a lesson in procurement. Check out the Silk Way Italy fleet of 1; this allows them to fulfil a requirement in a contract that limited bids to domestic registered companies. Slick, eh?
planespotters.net/airline/SW-Ita…