At the time of the shipments, Croatia was under a United Nations arms embargo, and Argentina was prohibited from selling weapons to Ecuador under the terms of a peace agreement signed in 1942.
The scandal was very important in Argentina because they were among the four official guarantors of peace of the Treaty of Rio de Janeiro, which breached its international commitments under law.
Scholar Paul Hockenos identifies Ivo Rojnica, a collaborationist official in Croatia's World War II puppet government who subsequently escaped to Argentina, as a key intermediary between Menem and the Croatian authorities.
The six other shipments contained surplus weapons from regular army units including 155 mm cannons, gunpowder, and Italian Oto Melara howitzers.
[citation needed] The confession of the former Controller of Fabricaciones Militares, Luis Sarlenga, which prompted federal judge Jorge Urso to order the house arrest of Carlos Menem in June 2001.