When gephardt murton strongest taxi around him a half an in 1949 he had no idea that he would one day do business with the west German Intelligence Service the b. M. D. And also the cia connections was a former member of the s. S. A daredevil paratrooper many of the government files about his postwar activities remain top secret to this day. The ship was a fog of us theres no question that mertons worked at the cia especially in the sale of weapons if you do see a guy but those arms dealers let a Foreign Policy problems and thats what the files remain closed and so forth not on its own what does are much the on off before fish was. Founded his taxi company and prima hofmann in the late 1940 s. Some people who met him said they found him intimidating. Religion did so for me i can still picture him he was a big strong guy and he knew how to throw his weight around post stuff really well. Met and soon establish connections with powerful government officials around the world and later sold weapons on behalf of the b. M. D. That flew in mertons was ideal for the b. And d. Because he knew how to keep those weapons deals secret of. My own for over 300. 00 have to. Matins called his company tax. In the postwar years his former comrades were among his employees. They drove a cab similar to this one. The company is still in business. In the office theres a photo of the original site. Files from the braman state archives reveal the names of some of the men who worked for teens at texas lloyd. One of them served under militants as a paratrooper during the war. His name was going to law bush. 70 years later met his widow ursula still remembers the name of another colleague. Jokingly. Lindemann i recognize that name right away q my husband and linda man founded the taxi company. On done up till such time had a number of men from his former paratrooper unit whod ended up in braman. Their love for. And thats how he was able to build up the company. Now lives near washington d. C. In a quiet residential area in Northern Virginia her husband died 25 years ago until recently she lived on in the same house she had shared with and. Now she has moved in with her eldest daughter and i get to it took 2 years for us to convince americans to give an interview about her late husband she was nervous about appearing in front of a camera she may also have been concerned about the subject matter. But she feels comfortable in her Daughters Company and agreed to talk to us. She shows us some family photographs she says that she fell in love with her husband almost at once. Because he was really ambitious and he always did what he set out to do. In 1901 matins took part in germanys airborne invasion of crete he was one of about 10000 paratroopers that occupied the greek island during the occupation the germans massacred large numbers of civilians the atrocities are remembered on crete to this day. The airborne invasion began on may 20th graphic artist all of a court shows us what it might have looked like. Militants was a unit commander at the time after the war he was to form a network with many of his fellow paratroopers and some of them became employees in his new taxi firm and came a huff and. Thats who declare this was a highly decorated officer. And he started building just network of former paratroopers known as the green devils. But they were all right wing extremists. In august 1943 of these paratroopers matins elvish and haka took part in a failed german effort to hold back the allied offensive in northern france. After the war mittens and his colleagues turned up in blame and which was occupied by u. S. Troops. The us authorities soon issued a business license to me a tense taxi company he was the owner and going to law this was the authorized signatory. Matins hired other former paratroopers including zick freed hoya. As life slowly returned to normal in postwar western germany business picked up for texas lloyd. It held a monopoly which allowed it to drive american soldiers around and transport goods through the soviet occupation zone to the u. S. Terrace and berlin. Veterans and his family lived a comfortable middle class life in braman the couple now had 2 daughters but ursula says her husband soon became restless and was looking for a new challenge. In the early 1950 s. He moved to egypt to work for the countrys military his family later joined him there. First he was there all by himself. But he soon recruited some former german officer george. Would for these were people that he knew well and they had a very specific job to do. That job was to train Egyptian Paratroopers egypt wanted an Airborne Division like the one the germans had used on crete. Egypt hired german advisors including form of a general vilhelm. Bestand in that small intimate i mean from merton signed on with the egyptians in march 951. 1 of many German Military advisors and trainers and i said that this work paid extremely well for the thought. The matins family now lived in cairo in a city that in the early fiftys was rapidly developing into a modern metropolis. But militants often returned to west germany to develop his business contacts. Begin to documents show that the diamond corp even gave him a car for his personal use or so americans noted that it was a mercedes of course we asked why he needed such an expensive car. The 1st. I have no idea. It was a status symbol something that would share with others that he was important or other and from the beginning we always had miss a. D. s carlos. Mencia to the script on. The egypt mittens built the foundation for his future career as a weapons dealer. His business contacts brought him to the attention of the b. M. D. The west German Intelligence Service. In early 1955 militants traveled for several months across the middle east including a stop in saudi arabia. Saudi king faisal became an important client. Met him soon delivered warships to him. He traveled as far as pakistan where he later sold the government fighter jets for the war with india. A number of postcolonial states were now building up their military forces. During his travels matins met with a number of former nazis who worked as military advisors as well as top Security Officials including titled to newsy of saudi arabia and mohammed of egypt. The indie documents indicate that met in strip was financed by german businesses including dima bents the company has so far not responded to our request for comment. After militants returned to blame and he came up with a plan to use part of the port as a base for weapons exports. At the same time the b. N. Deal was developing a secret plan to export surplus weapons. The project was led by a man known at the time by his code name short. Warm had an office at b. M. D. Headquarters near munich and soon began a series of regular meetings with matins. The former s. S. Man matins needed the b. M. D. For his ambitious plans and the b. M. D. Needed matins because he knew who wanted the weapons. But who was true warm. As bush warm stern is actually how much funding are the head of the b n ds Procurement Department of them this was a unique situation from the 2 of the bundeswehr was in the process of updating a number of its Weapons Systems and that was going to create a lot of surplus. In january 1965 shredding up as to sex. Or terry to come to his office to take notes. B n d president guillen was there shredding or outlined the creation of a company to sell the surplus weapons. The company will have to civilians as owners to conceal the b n d s participation. Claimant would play a key role. The company will set up Storage Facilities near the port all the companys profits will go to the b. And d. The letter was actually a transcript of a top secret discussion that spending or had with a senior official at the defense ministry. To be india is indeed galens time as b. And d. Chief was drawing to a close and the agency was trying to spread its influence to the far east africa and latin america and let her. Through the one way to do that was to sell weapons to countries in those regions secretly. The despite the fact that such sales were prohibited by west german law that will be exports he had good went on a hunt to communist. The b. N. Needed an experience weapons dealer like militants to make it all happen. That in 5. 00 to 30. 00 in the mountains was their 1st choice when looking for a shady weapons dealer in the s. The v. Had the International Connections and the support of the cia. A branch of the b n d r cards and the berlin district of least ephedra. Some declassified documents on mansions are stored here after months of negotiations we were finally allowed to see them. There is a portrait of the german president. And one of the 100 gillan. Despite his nazi past the americans made him the 1st head of the d. N. C. He served until 968. It was during his period in office that the b. M. D. Was involved in arms the us. This is the new b. And d. Headquarters complex in berlin the agency allowed us to review 24 declassified files on mittens but declined to say how much top secret material actually has on him. Theres information here on merchants weapons exports his work with west German Companies and the conflicts in which those weapons were used. Court documents later indicated that militants closely coordinated his activities with the b. N. T. There also documents on militants proposal to develop a port facility in braman which he would then use to export surplus bonus fair weapons. The company to be created by the b. And b. Would be known as mavic. This strawman shows the site where matins wanted to set up the new business the part of the brain that. He proposed to use Prison Inmates as workers a bank in mecca would handle the finances. Met its ambitious plans were never finalized but weapons were transported. Merchants had even purchased 2 ships for the purpose both were built at the visa Shipyard Employment one was called the very hot tide. The other was the billet i. Met ins used the ships to deliver weapons on behalf of the b. M. D. When the veritas carried and he took missiles to pakistan in 1966 matins and the b. M. D. Were informed. At the same time the belittle transported fighter planes to india with false documents at the time india and pakistan were at war. Mansions had acquired the weapons from the west german army and delivered them to enemies the shipments were illegal under west german law and International Law but covered up by the b. And d. Matins was needed for exactly this purpose. But at that had to do you think had business contacts that allowed them to falsify and use declarations for the full value of the shipments bound for saudi arabia where allegedly routed through iran weapons for india allegedly went through italy 1st you would need excellent connections as a weapons dealer to do that. The core of mertons empire was a Company Located near bonn merchants export or merricks for short. There was also a marriage subsidiary in switzerland with nontransparent business structures. Historian Peter Hama Schmidt has a number of merricks files the documents for example indicate that klaus bobby a former nazi who fled to south america after the war also bought surplus west german weapons from eriks. You may think so america was so to speak an extension of the federal governments. And it worked with the b. And d. And shipped weapons through various channels to latin america for example. The b. And d. Actively promoted such deals together intelligence about crisis regions but how much of it says it violated its constitutional mandate to simply observe. Interest in june from to get this activity began in the 1950 s. And least its peak in the mid 1960 s. With large shipments of weapons. They started taking more risks because the merit system works of well i dont use a constant to this question because it wasnt intelligence work but weapons deals. Merricks wasnt involved with intelligence. But the b. And d. Found that they could gather intelligence much more effectively by setting up and implementing these weapons deals just to close off on fission from the south or whatever so it gave them access that they might not have had otherwise. Not solute. This photo shows matins at his office in boston he was now selling weapons worldwide with the approval of the b. And d. He also became an International Representative for the u. S. Firearms manufacturer colt matins and his family later moved to america his eldest daughter margarita now lives in Northern Virginia. My get to is 70 years old now and has become an accomplished artist this is a selfportrait. Some of her works have been displayed at local exhibitions. My get a tells us that her father was often away from home on business. This is enough you know what he did for a living but this was you know all that. Profession he was an arms dealer. 24 almost every week my brothers and i would see in until about my father in death the german news magazine. On one occasion my High School Physics teacher told me at the beginning of the year zeke that he was going to give me the worst great possible for. This because of your father. I think so my father had bought me a house in the oil district of bone. And. I had a car too i was the only student who had 1. 1 of my teachers said to me i ride to work on a bicycle and you come driving up in an alfa romeo it wasnt good for my image are. Not good Public Relations in the us did you feel like you had to defend him. You know all fathers have some sort of job. To find. Your heart matters on a number of properties including this estate near bonn of course he always arrived at his headquarters in his mercedes he often held meetings here with his International Business contacts. On rare occasions he also received journalists but they were not really welcome. In the mid 1970 s. Matins did agree to an interview with journalist polish advocate. We meet thick of it and hamburg back then he was working for monitor t. V. Magazine he was doing research for a report and came across material on militants in his weapons deals including claims that bribes were paid vica had talked to some politicians about this and now he wanted to interview matins the 2 met and met in the state near bonn. So i went over there and he was very polite and. We went into his office and he asked me what i wanted to talk about. And i replied id like to ask you about saudi arabia saudi arabia right. I wanted to ask about the connection between merricks and the nurse and shipyards and the payments that were made and so on i dont. Know what happened after to get graphic and he started shouting get out. Somehow so that he was very quick tempered. And so the interview came to an abrupt end before it even started but vic it decided to pursue the story from a different angle. He said offered to some shipyard to check on allegations that bribes had been paid in connection with the sale of 3 patrol boats to saudi arabia. So i went to the shipyard and i brought along all the documents i had about the steel. The cameraman shot some film outside and then we went in. After. The Company Official came out to meet me and he said my cameraman was welcome to go to the cafeteria and have some coffee but i said that he had to stay with me to recall the interview. So he went to this room and there were about 20 people sitting there. For 3 shipyard officials lawyers and so on. They asked me what i wanted to talk about and so i told them because. They asked me to be more specific so i showed them the documents and then everyone got really angry and they threw us out of options. Shipyard headquarters and braman. The Family Owned Company with each shipyards bills Luxury Yachts and warships. Swedish listen is the companys c. E. O. He has good contacts with the german political establishment including german president. When steinmeyer was foreign minister loosen accompanied him on visits to saudi arabia and iran. Here they are the shipping trade event in payment in 2016. There were plans to sell loose and build patrol boats to end goal. In 2012 newson signed a 1500000000 euro contract with saudi arabia but being the documents indicate that it was. Who introduced the lewis and shipyard to how these. Met and set up the patrol boats that vica had investigated back then even proposed to build a military port facility for the saudis. Here are the blueprints. West german steel giant corp was also top participated in the project. The project would include barracks for 1500. 00 men a shipyard and storage bunkers for to paedos. To be india said to have been aware of these plants the loose and company declined to talk to us at all about this but it seems clear that mehrtens represented the shipyard and informed the b. M. D. He was also involved with a b. And d. Right this is the guy with us now and i know nothing about that. I have no idea what the b. N. D. S. Is a cia you know what youre here he had a lot of contacts and they included the cia he knew 1st hand what was going on around the wont. Stand. You know for years the so he had cia contacts yes i knew that. Its difficult to document the extent of matins contacts with the cia many of the files are still top secret. B. M. D. Long suspected that he was also working