Simon Wade
A BREATHTAKING haul of guns, missiles and ammunition has been seized by Spain’s Guardia Civil.
Sources describe the foiled operation as the largest online sale of firearms the country has seen.
Four people have been arrested, with thousands cartridges, scores of firearms, various explosive devices, projectiles, primers, gunpowder and tools used for the manufacturer of more ammunition.
Operation Salvado-Ermas consisted of 10 household raids in Madrid, Vizcaya, Pontevedra, Zaragoza, Lleida and Barcelona.
Investigations began in 2018 when a Madrid man was found selling ammunition to owners of illegally-owned weapons.
He ran a secret workshop producing cartridges and adapting other weapons, all sold online.
Subsequent investigations linked authorities to other similar operations elsewhere in Spain.
These pictures give an impression of the scale of the seizure, but sources have released a full list of what was found, intended for sale online.
- 100 short weapons (pistols and revolvers) and 33 long weapons
- 4 handcrafted firearms
- 1 shotgun baton
- 1 hand grenade, 3 mortar grenades, and two rocket shells.
- 7 flare guns and 2 line throwing rifles
- 29 loose handgun barrels and 5 revolver drums
- 18,196 metal cartridges of different calibers.
- 75 kg of projectiles and 33 kg of pods for the illegal manufacture of metal ammunition
- 2.5 kg of gunpowder and 11,050 pistons (primers) for the manufacture of metallic ammunition.
- Reloading presses, plungers and 32 sets of DIEs for the illegal manufacture of metal cartridges of as many calibers for short weapons and long weapons.
This operation was part of the Comprehensive Plan for the Control of Firearms (PICAF) of the Civil Guard.
Since it’s 2015 inception, more than 85 operations have been carried out against arms trafficking networks with 404 people arrested.
More than 4,500 firearms have been seized, over half a million cartridges, 183 kilos of explosive substances and 18 clandestine workshops have been dismantled.
