The man who machined this lower receiver is currently serving 70 years in federal prison and is one of only two Americans ever federally convicted of torture and that isn't even the craziest thing about this guy. My buddy just picked up the strangest "A4" clone I have ever seen. The upper has no forge marks. Anywhere. Nothing. Its off grey color screams poor anodizing. It features a top rail that is slightly higher than that of standard flat top upper receivers. The barrel is 20 inches and features no marks. No twist rate. No manufacturer. It feels like someone's memory of a flattop upper as their mind slips into dementia. The lower says Roggio Arsenal, a name I was unfamiliar with, so was my buddy, so was my coworker Paul who has forgotten more about ARs than I have learned in my entire life. You might then ask yourself "who or what the hell is Roggio Arsenal?" I asked myself the exact same question. I was not prepared for the answer. Buckle up for an absolute insane ride. Ross Roggio was born in 1968 and served as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne in the late 80s/early 90s. He was honorably discharged as a cavalry scout with a few hearings for misconduct. Ross would make claims of being a Green Beret, Silver Star recipient, and a Desert Storm vet. In the mid 2000s Roggio opened and ran a smoke shop and an indoor skate park. Both businesses made basically zero money so Roggio pivoted into firearms, likely because of his proximity to Ft. Bragg and the SF community around it. C. 2008 Roggio Arsenal is launched, selling lower receivers and complete rifles under the name of "RA-15" and "RA-16." His claim to fame was building rifles with custom stamps, primarily military units. At this time, Roggio began posting on the AR15dotcom forum (ARFCOM), advertising his business. The quality of Roggio's builds varied. Some users on ARFCOM reported them as being decent quality and many others reporting the opposite. Roggio was known to appear in threads of complaints to defend his company's name, sometimes offering to ship new receivers and sometimes calling out users. The consensus eventually settled on 'some of them are fine, some of them are atrocious.' By 2009-2010, Roggio's business ran into trouble. A deal with Sig Sauer fell through, supposedly due to Roggio's Silver Star claims. Around this time Roggio also was forced to surrender his FFL, a journalist's source claims it was due to the government believing he stole parts from his own company to sell under the table. Roggio maintained that he "was cleared." As 2010 drew on, things got worse. The company collapsed in on itself and the piles of defective parts kept piling up. Roggio would apparently leave his wife, allegations allude to forged signatures and unpaid rent issues. Roggio Arsenal ends. If you thought things were weird, we're gonna get WAY worse! Shortly after the Haitian earthquake in 2010, Roggio crawled out of the woodwork yet again, now styling himself as a PMC CEO of a company called Raidon Tactics, providing security for a medical television show in the tumultuous location. A journalists' source alleges that Roggio was selling donated clothes meant for victims to line his pockets. In October 2010 Roggio would have his most fateful encounter to date, he crossed paths with Polad Talabani, a Kurdish counterterrorist commander. Following a Dubai meeting, a plan is put in place for Roggio to construct and operate an arms plant in Iraqi Kurdistan producing M4 carbines. In 2012 Roggio is picked up as a consultant for a startup company called Rebel Arms, supposedly for $20,000 a month. He would be fired in May 2013. Partners suspected he'd been misusing company resources to build a model factory for Talabani, wasting nearly one million dollars in the process. Along with this, Roggio supposedly had waved a firearm around during a meeting, caused a negligent discharge, and the bullet ricocheted around the room. Roggio tried to sue Rebel Arms pro se (representing himself) and lost. July 2013, Roggio begins emailing a Philippine gun company (name was redacted from my research) attempting to facilitate the purchase of 5,000 M4 carbines for his Kurdish friend, Talabani. He wrote "I have sold many units to this customer," and "I was selling them M4s." The dealer backed out over UN/US arms exporting/embargo concerns, Roggio never obtained any licenses to export. Over a year later, in September 2014, Roggio signed a contract with Zarya Construction, to begin construction of Talabani's Kurdish weapons factory and moved to Sulaymaniyah. He would receive a salary of $1.4 million. Supposedly Roggio was so flush with cash that he began purchasing Rolex watches, supercars, and homes like a madman. By October of 2015 Roggio had imported enough material to build about 3,000 rifles. During this time he would send Talabani geotagged videos of weapons tests. Then we get to the point where things take a very bad turn. Roggio became convinced one of the employees at the factory, an Estonian named Siim Saar (yes, I am not joking. That is his name) was going to expose him for embezzling company funds. Roggio used the soldiers under his command at the factory to seize Saar and hold him for 39 days at an abandoned State Department facility, wherein Roggio and the soldiers would lead interrogations, beat, and tased Saar. Roggio personally suffocated the victim and threatened to cut off one of his fingers. In April of 2016 a tool shop in Connecticut learned that Roggio was trying to ship gunsmithing drill bits to Iraq via his wife and reported it to the FBI. The investigation began promptly. Come November of 2016, Faruk auditors discover financial discrepancies. Roggio reportedly texted Talabani that the auditors "just showed up. Lol." The Kurds accuse him of stealing approximately $4 million. He is placed under house arrest. Just when it couldn't get more insane, in December Roggio would escape. At 2 AM he exited out of the window of his penthouse. He was 7 stories above the ground, he shimmied his way to a maintenance door and reentered the building. He then paid a driver $250 to bring him to the US consulate in Erbil where he obtained a temporary passport, and then flew to NYC. Once in NYC he is seized by FBI, DHS, and the Commerce Department. During his questioning he would state that he had been kidnapped. A search of his cell phone showed a google search for "how to stop lying." In March of 2018 Roggio would be indicted for 37 counts relating to illegally exporting firearms. His homes, bank account, Rolex watches, supercars, and 170 firearms would be seized by the government. Finally in February of 2022 a superceding indictment would add the torture charges, making Roggio the second American to ever be charged and convicted under the 1994 federal torture statute. During the trial, Roggio attempted to claim that he was under duress and that the factory was actually a CIA black site. In May of 2023 Roggio is convicted of 39 total counts including torture, arms smuggling, wire fraud, and money laundering. In April of 2024 he was sentenced to 70 years in prison. Despite all of this, Roggio's factory in Kurdistan would operate until 2021, selling rifles under the name "Delta Defense" until being dissolved in a political power struggle, supposedly all technical documents have been burned. And that's the story of the Ross Roggio and the weirdest fucking AR15 I have ever seen in my entire life.