Weapons trafficking

Inside the illegal online weapons trade

One day, Michael Andrew Ryan sat down at a computer, hopped onto a hidden part of the Internet known as the dark Web, called himself "Gunrunner" and opened for business.

His international weapons operation offered anyone a virtual laundry list of weapons with brand names that have become disturbingly familiar:

• Glock
• Beretta
• Uzi
• Highpoint
• Walther

To make these guns hard to trace, Gunrunner took off their serial numbers and shipped them to countries where buying these guns was difficult -- if not altogether banned by law.

And it was all happening under the noses of the residents of the sleepy little town of Manhattan, Kansas, population: about 56,000.