Interpol warns organized crime of following arms deliveries with interest. Controls on possible smuggling routes have been stepped up in several countries.
Weapons delivered to Ukraine from different countries may still return and be in the hands of criminals.
Secretary – General of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) Jürgen Stock warns that with the end of the war in Ukraine, arms and ammunition will flow into the international black market.
According to Stock, this is known from past armed conflicts, and criminals are already following with interest the weapons and ammunition being sent to Ukraine. Referring to previous conflicts, Stock mentions the wars in the Balkans and Africa.
“Criminal groups are seeking to take advantage of such chaotic situations and the weapons available, even the weapons used by the armed forces, including heavy weapons,” Stock said in early June when speaking to reporters.
According to Stock, Interpol member states, especially those supplying weapons to Ukraine, must already prepare for the tracing of weapons through cooperation.
“None of the countries in our region can handle this alone, because the criminals I mentioned operate globally,” Stock said when speaking at an Anglo-American Press Association event in Paris.
Europol, the consortium of police organizations in the EU, has also considered taking action to address the threats posed by the war in Ukraine. One of these threats, already in early April, is arms smuggling.
“The consequences of the wars in the former Yugoslavia are visible in Sweden”
The EU is also already preparing for the possible flooding of weapons from Ukraine into the Union.
For example, the Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson visited the Moldovan-Romanian border in May and discussed with the Moldovan authorities ways to prevent arms smuggling from Ukraine to EU countries.
Warfare in eastern Ukraine has continued since 2014, and arms have been moving on the Moldovan-Ukrainian border for a long time. For example, only during April 2017 (you will switch to another service) authorities blocked the smuggling of a total of about 580 firearms at the border.
The EU border security agency Frontex has increased its support for the Moldovan border authorities and border guards in other countries in the vicinity of Ukraine.
Dagens Nyheterin (move to another service) According to the Swedish Johansson, he is worried about the large number of weapons that will be in Ukraine sometime at the end of the war. According to him, the guns could end up in the hands of criminal gangs and eventually in Sweden, for example.
– Long after the wars in the former Yugoslavia, we are seeing the consequences in Sweden, where weapons from the war are being used to shoot gang criminals. [Venäjän presidentin Vladimir] Putin With the war in Ukraine, we see a high risk of an increase in the criminal arms trade, Johansson said in May, according to DN.
Swedish criminals with assault rifles and submachine guns
Swedish police estimate that a large proportion of the weapons seized from criminals come from the territory of the former Yugoslavia.
The Danish police have made a similar finding about the weapons used by gang criminals in the country. Often the weapons of smugglers move from Denmark along the bridge over the Sound to Skåne in southern Sweden.
In its 2020 firearms report (pdf), the Stockholm police highlighted the importance of developing measures to prevent the smuggling of weapons from conflict zones. Both the Swedish and Danish authorities have cooperated with the Balkan authorities.
According to Swedish customs, illegal weapons are imported into cars, buses and lorries. Instead of large loads, weapons are usually imported in small batches. According to the authorities, some weapons are also delivered in mail transports.
Swedish criminals have a lot of assault rifles and submachine guns smuggled from the Balkans, for example. Some of them have been stolen from arms depots in different countries, but sometimes the guns end up in criminals because someone in the armed forces trades in them in the dark.
The Finnish Central Criminal Police tells that no large-scale weapons have been encountered here, which are suspected to have originated in the territory of the former Yugoslavia. For example, less than five weapons have been submitted to the forensic laboratory for examination this year, as has typically been found in conflict areas.
However, according to KRP, the Finnish police are actively monitoring the phenomenon and also take into account the concerns raised by Interpol and Europol.
Arms smuggling is a side business of other crimes
Europol on the threat of organized crime in 2021 report (pdf) (switch to another service) according to which conflicts that have ended or are still ongoing are one of the most significant sources of illegal weapons.
Published in 2017 by the EU in the report (switch to another service) for its part, it was noted that the majority of illegal weapons detected in the Union between 2010 and 2015 had been smuggled through the territories of the former Yugoslavia and the former Soviet Union.
Weapons allegedly from Ukraine have already been sold on the dark net. There is no certainty that, for example, the anti-tank weapon allegedly for sale would actually come from Ukraine.
Europol estimates that the trade in illegal weapons on the Internet is limited and that many of the network’s weapons declarations are scams. More significant is the off-line arms trade, which is often a side business of, for example, drug smugglers. Guns are also paid for with drugs.
In Southeast Europe, a dammed arms flow for a couple of decades
Attempts have been made to curb the illegal arms trade following the break-up wars in the former Yugoslavia, including through the United Nations. For example, the proliferation and illicit use of small arms and light weapons in south-eastern and eastern Europe has been combated for 20 years. SEESAC (switch to another service) (Small Arms and Light Weapons Control Clearing House).
Work has been done in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia, Kosovo and Albania, among others. Ukraine has also recently been included in the list of countries.
According to SEESAC, more than 342,000 weapons have been destroyed in the area over the past 20 years, and 24 safe storage areas for weapons and ammunition have been established. Efforts have also been made to curb the proliferation of weapons, including by stepping up border controls and police operations, harmonizing legislation and developing criminal investigations.
The most common confiscations were pistols and other short handguns, which were seized in more than 630 cases. Long firearms such as rifles were seized in 300 cases and serial firearms in 190 cases. Of the seizures, 68 were classified as large, meaning they involved at least five weapons. Ammunition and explosives also came into the possession of the authorities.
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