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10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/William Downing.md

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+---
+category: "Iran-Contra"
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Contra_War
+  - 1980s
+  - Weapons
+summary: William "Bill" Downing was Ronald Lister's partner in the Mundy Security Group who designed a laser sighting device for AR-15 assault rifles and was involved in procuring weapons sold to Danilo Blandón and crack dealers in Los Angeles.
+---
+William Lee Downing was a partner of [[Ronald Lister]] in the [[Mundy Security Group]], the Laguna Beach security company Lister incorporated in mid-1983. Through this "security business" in high-class Laguna Beach, Downing and Lister procured weapons for [[Danilo Blandon|Danilo Blandón]], who resold them to [[Ricky Ross]] and other crack dealers in South Central Los Angeles.[^1]
+
+### Laser Sighting Device
+
+Downing designed a laser sighting device for AR-15 assault rifles that the Mundy Security Group attempted to market. The device used a tiny laser beam to put a small red dot on a target, facilitating kills at night. [[Chris Moore|Christopher W. Moore]], a director of Mundy Security Group, said this gadget was one of the company's only known business activities aside from a few burglar alarm installations.[^1]
+
+### Weapons Supply Network
+
+The weapons Downing helped procure included the full spectrum available to Lister's network. Blandón told [[Central Intelligence Agency]] inspectors that Lister had access to such a wide variety of weapons that in 1983 or 1984, he arranged for Lister to give a sales presentation to Contra leadership. The Mundy Security Group was licensed with the [[State Department]] in 1983 to export U.S. Munitions List items to other countries, receiving three temporary export licenses (DSP-73s) to export laser components and spare parts to "various countries."[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 10: "Teach a man a craft and he's liable to practice it"