They were either brothers or cousins, all from Afghanistan and members of the Mujahideen. That made me even more curious, so I began asking even more questions.  They were very polite and had excellent manners.  One by one they began telling me stories of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the effect on their very large extended family, that lived in that mountainous region near Pakistan.  (I hope you are getting the picture of just who I was talking too).  They told how they would discover large deposits of lapis, then set up what looked like a military camp.  The Soviets would come along and bomb it.  They would go back in, pick up the lapis instead of mining it, then caravan it into Pakistan, where they would pack it up and one or two of them would bring it to their shop in ABQ.  There they would sell it for a large price, take the money, buy guns, then those two would go back to Afghanistan to “Fight the Rooskies”.  Then the process would begin all over again.  When my friend Paul, who had a wholesale business a few blocks from then discovered where I was he had a fit.  “Do you have any idea who you were talking to?”  I was informed, very succinctly, that they were gun-runners and very shady characters with some very questionable contacts back in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and a few other places.  I was also told before it was over, we would be at war with them, that  he thought more than fighting the ‘Rooskies’ was going on with them.  That in his way of thinking he felt they were into some strange religious practices. (I think I still have a piece of jewelry I bought from one of them).