WATCH: Guardia Civil’s Arms Trafficking Operation Seizes More Than 760 Weapons With 80 Arrests In

A macro operation conducted by Spain’s Guardia Civil resulted in the arrest of 80 people and the seizure of 760 weapons.

As revealed in a statement from the force this Sunday, July 9, the action against illegal international arms trafficking was carried out in collaboration with the National Crime Agency (NCA) of the United Kingdom, Europol and police from eight other countries.

‘Operation Diana-Vizardlike’ was launched in 2019 after officers from the Information Service of the Guardia Civil and the British NCA detected numerous criminals who were supplying illegal weapons in the European market, including Spain.

To obtain firearms, criminals acquired alarm or signal weapons, commonly known as detonators or blanks, through the internet from authorised establishments and online platforms. Subsequently, they were transformed into lethal weapons capable of firing live ammunition and projectiles.

Weapons were obtained from different EU countries

These weapons were obtained by people from different countries of the European Union, mostly British, using fictitious identities, false addresses, and cloned virtual means of payment.

More than 40 per cent of the firearms involved in criminal acts in the UK are originally non-lethal weapons, such as detonating weapons.

They are manufactured abroad and are later modified or reactivated into real firearms and used in violent acts, such as the 445 shootings with 23 fatalities registered last year.

Actions of the Information Service

Once this practice of transforming weapons was detected more than three years ago, the Information Service monitored and analysed almost 2,000 arms sales to foreign citizens.

Once the suspicious purchases were detected, they were reported to Europol and the police of the countries where the illegal buyers resided.

The intelligence obtained during these years of investigation led to the execution of more than 20 European investigation orders and international letters rogatory with 540 international exchanges of information.

During this time, 150 deliveries and searches were carried out in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Italy, Switzerland, Greece, Belgium, and Romania.

In addition to weapons, the searches also uncovered ammunition, chemical precursors that can be used as explosives, detonators, silencers, and machinery to manipulate and transform weapons.

Of these seized weapons, many of them had already been manipulated and transformed into lethal ones and introduced into the criminal circuit.

Some were in the hands of dangerous criminals with extensive criminal histories linked to organised crime, drug trafficking, violent robberies, youth gangs, far-right groups, and sexual offenders.

Coordinated work with the British NCA

Through operational and coordinated work, the Guardia Civil and the British NCA managed to seize 703 weapons and arrest 74 people in the United Kingdom.

Among them were several cases in which the buyers of the weapons were being investigated for their links to violent extremism or suspected terrorist activities. In other cases, the detainees were linked to drug trafficking and even to the possession of explosives.

In October 2019, a 31-year-old man was arrested in London for receiving several modified firearms imported from Spain. This person was dedicated to selling these weapons to third parties and ended up being sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Subsequent investigations led to the arrest of six other people who had bought weapons from this convicted person. One of them had purchased 29 firearms, including rifles and submachine guns considered weapons of war

Another case in May 2021 involved a 32-year-old person who was caught with 26 firearms, explosives, ammunition, and false police plates, for which he was also sentenced to 11 years in prison.

In April 2020, a 59-year-old man was arrested who, in addition to firearms, was found in possession of military and chemical hand grenades that had to be defused by British Army bomb disposal experts.

Within the actions in other countries and the information provided by the Guardia Civil, in July 2021, Dutch police arrested the manager of an establishment in the city of Rotterdam. He was classified as a violent radical who had acquired a total of 23 weapons from Spain.

Seizures occurred in other European countries

During the search of his home and two commercial establishments run by the detainee, seven firearms were seized. One of them was found hidden in a false bottom of his vehicle, along with a brass knuckleduster and a clandestine laboratory for the production of cocaine and hashish.

In another notable intervention, this time in Sweden in March 2020, the police and customs authorities of that country identified and detained a person with a criminal record for drug trafficking.

He had acquired several firearms in Spain. During the course of the search of his home, 17 firearms were seized, including those purchased in Spain.

#OperacionesGC | La @guardiacivil realiza una macro-operación contra el tráfico internacional de armas junto a @NCA_UK y policías de 8 países

➡️+ 760 armas incautadas
➡️80 detenidos vinculados a organizaciones criminales o bandas juveniles

🔗https://t.co/ClTCMQgia2 pic.twitter.com/gYKixzfEs2

— Guardia Civil (@guardiacivil) July 9, 2023