The Civil Guard, together with the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), Europol and police from eight other countries that left multiple countries, conducted a macro operation against illegal international arms trafficking. 760 weapons were seized and 80 people were arrested.
This process called Diana Vizardlike It is part of the fight against arms smuggling networks that feed crime or terrorist organizations. The operation began in 2019 when agents of the Civil Guard Information Service and British NCA identified a large number of criminals supplying illegal weapons to the European market, including the Spanish market.
In order to obtain firearms, they purchased alarm or signal weapons, commonly known as detonators or blanks, through the internet at authorized institutions and online platforms. Later they were turned into lethal weapons. Shoot live and fire bullet ammunition.
According to the Civil Guard, these weapons were obtained by people from different countries of the world. European Union, most Brits use fictitious identities, fake addresses or cloned virtual payment instruments. Such weapons are of particular concern in countries such as: United Kingdom, Where more than 40 percent of firearms involved in criminal acts were originally non-lethal weapons, such as explosives.
When this gun conversion practice was discovered more than three years ago, the Civil Guard Information Service tracked and analyzed nearly 2,000 gun sales to foreign citizens. After suspicious purchases are detected, Europol and the police of countries where illegal buyers reside.
The intelligence gained during these years of investigation led to the execution of more than one person. 20 European Investigation Orders and 540 international exchanges of information and international letters of rogatory. During this time, 150 deliveries and searches were made in the UK, Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Italy, Switzerland, Greece, Belgium or Romania, resulting in the seizure of more than 760 firearms and the arrest of 80 people.
Weapons were also confiscated. ammunition, chemical precursors It can be used as an explosive, detonator, silencer or machine to manipulate and transform weapons.
Many of these seized weapons had already been manipulated and rendered lethal and brought into the criminal network. Some were in the hands of dangerous criminals with extensive criminal records linked to organized crime. drug trafficking, violent robberies, youth gangs, far-right groups or sex offenders.