>>64173092
It was a term the ATF came up with to describe this group of companies, which were all making this pattern of cheap potmetal pistol, and which were all owned by this one extended family and their associates, which were all pretty shady people.
I think one of them (was it Jennings or Jimenez?) who got busted and convicted on CP charges, no joke. They also hired a lot of other shady people working in their factories, there were apparently drug deals going on, as well people sneaking out guns from the factory to straw sell, etc.

Arcadia Machine & Tool (AMT) weren't really associated with these people to my knowledge (and didn't have the same kind of crooked employees), but they tended to get rolled into that umbrella because they sold a lot of very cheap and not particularly good quality pocket pistols.
AMT are not known for consistent and stellar quality, but they did make stuff like 1911s of various kinds and their Automag pistols, all which are known to have problems, but tend to be fixable.