In January 2007, three young stoners from Miami Beach won a $300 million US Government contract to supply ammunition to the Afghanistan military. Instead of fulfilling the order with high-quality arms, they bought cheap Communist-style surplus ammo from Balkan gunrunners. The dudes then secretly repackaged millions of rounds of shoddy Chinese ammunition and shipped it to Kabul - until they were caught by Pentagon investigators.

That's the 'official' story. The truth is far more explosive. Originally published as 'The Arms and the Dudes', this is a trip that goes from a dive apartment in Miami Beach to mountain caves in Albania, the corridors of power in Washington, and the frontlines of Iraq and Afghanistan.

This is a story you were never meant to read.

Guy Lawson is a New York Times bestselling author and award-winning investigative journalist whose articles on war, crime, culture, and law have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the Guardian, Rolling Stone, GQ and Harper's.