
On the other hand, this level of international power was Diveroli’s ambitious plan from the very start.

to provide them with the weapons and ammunition needed to fight the war. Packouz was mentally unprepared for having the entirety of the US’s Afghanistan allied forces relying on AEY, Inc. from a source in Albania before being sold to the US military and distributed to American allies in Afghanistan. According to the contract the arms were to be obtained by AEY, Inc. The true story of War Dogs comes to a climax with the stoner gun-runner duo securing an arms contract called the “Afghan Deal” to provide the US government with nearly 300 million dollars in ammo and weapons. The “Afghan Deal” & How They Defrauded the US Government Collage of the War in Afghanistan (2001-2021) via Wikimedia Commons Another key player in the War Dogs true story is a man named Ralph Merrill, their chief financial backer. Despite their young age and heavy marijuana use, Diveroli and Packouz were able to beat Fortune 500 companies in obtaining weapons contracts from the US military.
REAL WAR STORY SERIES
Often referred to as a “stoner” by the media, Diveroli struggled with a drug addiction that contributed to the series of bad decisions leading up to his arrest. As his business portfolio grew to include millions of dollars in arms contracts, more people started to take notice of him. He had an ambitious, reckless personality that led him to take extreme risks in pursuit of his goals. with Diveroli.Įfraim Diveroli was far from the typical teenage boy and he garnered a reputation as an “arms wunderkind”.
REAL WAR STORY MOVIE
A key plot point in the 2016 movie War Dogs is the internal moral and emotional struggle that Packouz faced working at AEY, Inc. came into play to facilitate the sale of international arms for the US military in order to bypass international trade regulations.ĭavid Packouz was not in support of the war, but his personal opinions came second to his lucrative new business venture.

In the 2000’s the US government needed to tap into this market in order to compete with other military groups, but couldn’t purchase the weapons and ammo directly without violating international trade laws. After the Cold War arms race ended in the 90’s, there were stockpiles of weapons and ammo still hidden around Europe. When he found out that his girlfriend had become pregnant, he decided to make the risky jump from massage therapist to arms dealer in order to provide for his new family.Īdvertisements Headshot picture of David Packouz from 2013, Wikimedia Commons New International Business Opportunities In Gray Market Weapons Dealingĭuring this time the US military was in desperate need of weapons and ammo to arm it’s allies in the Middle East. Meanwhile, his highschool friend David Packouz was struggling to provide for himself and his girlfriend as an underpaid massage therapist. His goal was simple: get rich by capitalizing on the emergent need for arms dealers to facilitate weapons contracts for the US military. was born.Īrmed with a laptop, some weed, and an official business license, teenage Diveroli got to work from the sofa in his one-room apartment in Miami. He asked his father to sell him the company so that he could use it to start his own business facilitating arms contracts with the US government. named after the initials of Efraim and his siblings. His family owned a shell company called AEY, Inc. His grandfather Yoav Botach was an extremely wealthy Los Angeles property owner and his uncle is the famous rabbi Schmuley BoteachĪccording to his memoir, Diveroli dove headfirst into the world of international arms trading when he was only fifteen years old. Efraim Diveroli was born into an Orthodox Jewish family from Miami Beach, Florida and practiced strict cultural and spiritual traditions growing up. Louis, Missouri–David Packouz was a licensed massage therapist before he joined Efraim Diveroli as an international arms dealer.

David Packouz and Efraim Diveroli Before They Were Famousīorn into a Jewish family in St. No one could have predicted the saga of events that unfolded after the two joined forces to provide US allies with arms during the Afghan War. When at the end of 2006 they had already amassed over $10 million in arms contracts, it was clear that the two young entrepreneurs were destined to make history. The two were only 19 and 23 years old respectively when they first came together to form their arms company in 2005. The stars of the War Dogs story are David Packouz, born 1982, and Efraim Diveroli, born 1985. The True Story of the Stoner Weapons Dealers That Scammed the US Military Warner Bros. Warning! This article contains spoilers for the movie War Dogs (2016).
