" Together, Mertins and Cummings were a formidable arms-dealing force. In 1965 they worked together to sell seventy-four US-made F-86 fighter planes to Venezuela, fifty-four of which were surplus German stock and a further twenty procured from active Luftwaffe service.24 It was a hugely profitable deal. "

― Andrew Feinstein , The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade