On February 24, the Alicante Civil Guard’s Cañonero operation seized an arsenal of 79 weapons that had been tampered with by a habitual criminal who had knowledge of turning and was able to rehabilitate both disabled weapons and parts from scratch to manufacture. Despite the fact that arms trafficking in Spain is moderate or small, the Civil Guard notes a progressive increase in pistols, revolvers and war rifles, mainly related to drug trafficking. Given the severe restrictions imposed by Spanish legislation, organized groups are resorting to rehabilitation and internet sales to armor up their camps, steal materials from other gangs or make account corrections, according to two officials from the Guardia Civil, the body in charge of firearms processing and control Spain, and who prefer to hide their identity.
The alarms intensified in December 2020 as a result of the Nongreta operation carried out in Malaga, “which began by noticing an increasing reckoning between drug traffickers with rigged weapons” and in which the Civil Guard “dismantled an intelligence workshop for the manufacture of assault rifles”, recalled A captain of the Arms Trade Group of the Information Headquarters of the Special Central Unit (UCE3) of the Armed Institute. “They mainly use them to defend day-care centers, their hiding places and drug depots from there” and also to commit “attacks, drug thefts by other criminal groups”. “This class of organized criminals is looking for powerful silenced weapons, the use of which is banned in Spain, and even hand grenades,” confirms the captain.
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In the case of Alicante, adds a lieutenant from the Alicante Command’s information group, it was surprising “how many weapons were found and that the detainee was able to make them from scratch, without industrial parts but from plans and models He recreated them with his knowledge as a wood turner.” They are artefacts “with an additional danger” since they are “completely anonymous” and do not appear in any register. This operation, which made three arrests, also showed that although drug trafficking was mainly based in Campo de Gibraltar and the Costa del Sol, police pressure is pushing criminal gangs to other parts of Spain’s geography, mainly the Levant and those south of Castile-La Mancha.
Compared to other countries that are much more permissive, or like “in the United States, where gun ownership is a civil right,” says the Central Unit captain, in Spain, “where the legislation is very restrictive as a result of the Terrorism, mainly from ETA,” it’s not easy to get a gun. “Firstly, because we’re not a big manufacturer,” he says. “Criminals are interested in handguns like pistols or revolvers and weapons of war like bolt-action rifles, which are here cannot be manufactured.” With the industrial conversion, the existing gun shops closed. “Now there are only companies specializing in shotguns and hunting rifles,” the captain continues, “all other types of firearms come from outside, including the regulations of the state security forces and organs.”
And finally, because “there have been no armed conflicts in neighboring countries”. “The war in the Balkans, which led to large arms production and storage, has affected the neighboring countries,” says the Madrid official. Despite everything, as this newspaper reported last September, the National Police warned of the danger of an increase in illegal arms trafficking “in the short and medium term” from arsenals on both sides of the war in Ukraine. “And the arsenal of the Civil War that still has fully functioning weapons in the hands of people who have already died and, in most cases, have been returned.”
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As a result, gangs are forced to resort to handcrafting or rehabilitating weapons imported via the Internet, “thanks to the loopholes and legislative differences that exist in other countries.” “The main countries of origin are Slovakia and the Czech Republic,” he explains, “countries that armed themselves to the teeth during the Cold War and amassed a lot of stocks.” After the disappearance of the Soviet Union, “to get out of this arsenal, they began to use it manipulated to turn them into detonating blank guns, but the deactivation is easily undone.” So much so that in Spain “the law had to be changed in 2017 so that these types of weapons are not freely traded and their purchase requires a multitude of certificates and records,” he says.
On Christmas Day 2021, a 21-year-old man shot dead his partner, a 25-year-old girl, in Elche (Alicante). Days later, the National Police found him barricaded in a house armed with a Kalashnikov, the country’s most famous assault rifle. “Without precise knowledge of the case, one can be sure that the origin is 20% Balkan and 80% Slovakia or Czech Republic,” says the UCE3 official. “You buy an original AK-47 with a pin in the barrel that renders it useless and then go back to using it. The 2015 Paris attacks were also perpetrated with this type of weapon.” In a small percentage of cases, criminals use the “80% kit from the United States” where “an 80% assembled part is not considered a weapon, so they sell it Models missing the barrel, slide and frame on pistols and the cylinder instead of the slide on revolvers”. “But the purchase of these individual parts in Spain requires the same permits as a complete weapon,” which makes their distribution difficult.
The Alicante command lieutenant debunks a myth, that of 3D printed weapons. “No one has yet been found in Europe that was made entirely with this system because there are parts that cannot withstand the pressure when fired.” And it puts the focus on cyberspace. “The internet has made everything easier and allows access to weapons both on the dark web and on sales sites for any product,” he warns. “It connects prospects who refer to forums for rehabilitated guns and private chats for sale.”
Where no firearms are normally found is the area of terrorist cells, the two officers confirm. “You don’t need a large infrastructure in terrorism,” explains the lieutenant. “You don’t need weapons to create terror and chaos.” As an example, he cites the Barcelona cell, which “although it had a hierarchical structure like that of ETA or the IRA, had no weapons”. “Today’s terrorism usually attacks with lone fighters who usually don’t have access to this type of weapon,” confirms the captain. “They use knives and vans because their main objective is to attract attention.” “In Spain they are not allowed to advance too far since 11-M and the cell using firearms is rare,” he continues. But manipulated weapons were found in the attacks on Charlie Hebdo or the Bataclan theater in Paris, as well as in other French cases. “In the attacks in Carcassonne and Trèbes (France) on March 23, 2018, which left four dead and injured 15, one of the terrorists used a fully functional Spanish-made weapon from 1915,” he recalls.
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