Major arms dealer held by police in northern Spain

ONE of the largest dealers of weapons on the black market has been held by police in Navarra. 

The 24-year-old, who has no qualifications or trade experience, taught himself how to navigate the black market-dominated dark web and manufacture weapons, which he would then sell on for a hefty profit.                         

During raids on several of his properties, officers seized 22 small firearms, several hand-made weapons, 1 kilo of gunpowder and more than €1,500 in cash.

The young arms dealer sold his goods to the UK, Spain, Germany, the US and Asia and only accepted payment in bitcoins – the virtual currency.

He travelled between his hometown of Navarra and a flat in Barcelona to do business, and had constructed a gun-manufacturing workshop in a garage belonging to one of his elderly neighbours.

He also dealt the weapons in the same Slovakian base which sold the guns used in the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks.

Since his arrest, Interpol have managed to bring down several of his buyers, some with a history of murder. According to investigators working on the case, these arrests dealt “one of the biggest blows to this kind of illegal activity on the international level.”                                                               

This latest success comes after Spanish police revealed that 20 per cent of the firearms seized in the past five years have been weapons of war. In January, police confiscated over 10,000 of these weapons with the help of Interpol, including assault rifles, anti-aircraft machine guns and grenades, from sites in Girona, Bizcay and Cantabria.