The Cugir Wars: How Century Arms Killed M+M Industries

What if I told you one of the biggest disputes in the American AK market wasn't about rifles at all—it was about who had the right to import them? Today we're looking at the conflict involving Century Arms, M+M Industries, and Romania's famous Cugir factory. The Century Arms, M+M Industries, and Cugir Story If you've spent any time in the AK community, you've probably heard people mention Century Arms, M+M Industries, and the Romanian factory at Cugir. What many people don't realize is that these companies were involved in a business dispute that helped shape the U.S. AK market. To understand what happened, we first need to talk about Cugir. Cugir is a Romanian firearms factory that has been building AK-pattern rifles for decades. Many of the Romanian AKs sold in the United States—including the famous WASR rifles and Draco pistols—originate from this factory. For years, Century Arms was Cugir's biggest customer in the United States. Century imported huge numbers of Romanian firearms and developed a very close business relationship with the factory. Then things got complicated. Around the early 2010s, other companies started importing Romanian firearms as well. One of those companies was M+M Industries. M+M became known for bringing in Romanian-made AK variants that were produced within the same Romanian arms industry network that supplied Century. From a consumer perspective, many of these guns were coming from the same country, and in some cases the same factory system, but through different importers. According to reports from Romania, Century believed it had an agreement that gave it preferential rights to purchase certain civilian firearms from Cugir. When guns began reaching the U.S. through other import channels, Century objected. The disagreement reportedly grew into a legal dispute between Century Arms and the Cugir factory. Romanian news outlets described it as a significant conflict involving contracts and export rights. A lot of American shooters eventually interpreted this as a direct battle between Century and M+M Industries, but that's not exactly what happened. The real issue appears to have been Century's relationship with Cugir and whether other importers should have been allowed access to the same products. M+M simply became one of the most visible examples of another company importing Romanian firearms into the American market. Eventually, the dispute was resolved. Century continued doing business with Cugir and remains closely associated with Romanian imports to this day. The WASR and Draco product lines continued to be imported, and Century maintained major contracts with the Romanian factory. Meanwhile, M+M Industries gradually moved away from being primarily an importer and focused more on manufacturing its own firearms, most notably the M10X rifle. In the end, this wasn't really a story about one AK company fighting another. It was a story about contracts, distribution rights, and control of one of the most important sources of AK-pattern rifles entering the United States. And because so many Romanian AKs came from Cugir, the outcome mattered to collectors, shooters, and anyone interested in the AK market.