Post War Smuggling Rings

The Post War Smuggling Rings was the name for the great number of criminal organizations that sprung up after the to take advantage of the new influx of equipment, both from the  and the alien alliance known as the. These smuggling rings, both human and alien, were instrumental in arming secessionist colonies abandoned during the War, and through that, the Post War Conflicts.

Early Stages and Growing
The smuggling rings that sprung up after the were mostly composed of preexisting criminal organizations that had survived the chaos of the War, using the chaos of early reconstruction to come into possession of military equipment, mostly small arms and other personal gear.

However, with reconstruction after the War forcing the UNSC to downsize its military to pay for the immense costs, an influx of heavy equipment being retired found its way to the criminal underworld, and from there to the. By 2554, the smuggling rings had become massive affairs, all under the nose of the UNSC through corrupt officials, both political and military, on the criminal payroll.

The rings did not just sell UNSC and human weaponry, but also equipment as well, through  criminals, who, without the Covenant keeping them in check, were free to indulge their smuggling tendencies, selling weaponry to the highest bidder. The most infamous of these alien smugglers was, a who sold rebel  the CCS Class Battlecruiser.

Post War Conflicts and Crackdown
The criminal groups would later play a role in the bloodshed of the Post War Conflicts as the UNSC attempted to take back colonies that had been abandoned or had seceded during the Human-Covenant War. These colonies, well armed by the smuggling rings, forced the UNSC into a bloody two-year series of wars.

With the UNSC wondering where the rebels had managed to procure so much equipment, and the issue having been brought to the forefront with the death of thousands of UNSC servicemen during the conflicts, a crackdown began on the rings, eliminating a large amount of them, including one that was about to sell VX7 Nerve Gas to a terrorist group on.

Post Crackdown
After the crackdown and subsequent strengthening of security measures against smuggling, the criminal rings that had survived devolved back to their original state of simply smuggling arms and other personal equipment to various groups, and continuing to supply the rebellion.