Agents of the Civil Guard and the National Police have today arrested four people for the illegal possession of weapons.
A spokesman said that the gang had 45 starting pistols in their possession, all of which had been purchased online with the specific aim of converting them into firearms.
The individual who made the actual purchases is said to have a history of belonging to radical groups and murder.
Within the framework of the competencies of the State Security Forces and Agencies aimed at detecting the increase of weapons in the illicit market, the National Police and the Civil Guard have carried out numerous investigations into criminal groups dedicated to the acquisition of such pistols which are regularly converted into genuine weapons.
The weapons are first adjusted, in order to enable them to carry out real fire and, secondly sold, within the black market or amongst the criminal network, with the all the dangers that this entails for public security.
The investigation was managed jointly by agents of the National Police from the Region of Murcia and agents of the 5th Civil Guard Zone, whose inquiries enabled them to detect the acquisition of a “surprising and quite unusual high number of detonating weapons “, all by one person during the last year and through the internet, from an armoury located in Madrid.
These are pistol-type detonating guns and revolvers of an identical appearance to real firearms, and easily able to be modified to real firearms and therefore illegal.
It was also discovered that the person acquiring this large number of weapons had a history of belonging to groups of radical ideology, murder, illegal possession of weapons-ammunition-explosives, threats, injuries and robberies. As such the National Police and the Civil Guard initiated enquiries to determine if it was an illegal stockpile of weapons for use in the commission of violent crimes.
The enquiries were extended to the family and friends of the principal investigator, all of them with diverse police records and living in the towns of Guardamar and Torrevieja.
In the middle November, in view of the danger that these individuals represented to public safety, having an exorbitant number of detonating weapons and the strong suspicion that they would carry out modifications in order to convert the weapons, agents of the Civil Guard and the National Police, in a joint operation, searched three different addresses in Torrevieja and Guardamar.
During the searches, the agents arrested four people of Spanish nationality, aged between 31 and 52. In addition, they seized 45 detonating and compressed air rifles, 133 live ammunition cartridges, 275 rounds of ammunition detonator, various tools and tools dedicated to the modification of weapons. They also confiscated pressure drills, grinder, sander, precision screwdrivers , bits, and several other prohibited weapons as well as face masks usually used in the commission of robberies with violence.
A spokesman for the National Police said that in October of this year, there had been a modification to the legislation regarding the regulation of such that are not for sports activities and suchlike.
