Seven suspects have been arrested in connection with the gang, which is believed to have sourced high-powered weapons from illegal markets in the Western Balkans and trafficked them into France for onward distribution. The joint operation – supported by Europol and Eurojust – has taken down the full supply chain behind the trafficking route, from source to destination.
The case began in September 2023, when law enforcement from Bosnia and Herzegovina informed Slovenian authorities that a vehicle transporting large quantities of weapons and ammunition was heading towards France. As the vehicle was already in Slovenia on its way to Austria, Slovenian authorities informed Austria. Austrian police stopped the Slovenian-registered vehicle towing a caravan near the Slovenian border. Inside, officers discovered a hidden cache of weapons, including 25 AK-type assault rifles, 126 hand grenades of various types, 25 kg of AK ammunition, 1 machine gun and 1 pisto.
Read more…
Source: Europol
Sign up for Counter-IED Report Newsletter
The latest news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- Republic of Georgia: Large cache of weapons and explosives discovered, planned sabotage for October 4 prevented
October 5, 2025
The State Security Service of Georgia (SSG) announced the discovery of a large cache of firearms, ammunition, and explosives with a detonator, allegedly purchased under the instruction of a Georgian representative of a Ukrainian military unit. SSG says the weapons were intended to be used for sabotage in Tbilisi on October 4, in parallel with an ...
- UNODC: Organized crime dynamics in the context of war in Ukraine
August 18, 2025
Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation in February 2022, the political economy of Ukraine has been profoundly transformed. The aggression affected both licit and illicit trade routes, disrupted criminal organizations, and spawned new forms of informal and illicit exchange at the frontline and in the rear of the country. It has ...
- Nigeria Customs Seize Explosives Hidden In Quran Cartons At Benin Border
May 14, 2025
Meanwhile, the discovery has raised serious concerns about the lengths to which smugglers are going to evade detection with suspicion of the possibility of a broader smuggling or criminal network. The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has reported that operatives from the Seme Area Command, located at the Nigeria-Benin border, intercepted a shipment of suspected explosive materials, ...
- Lake Chad: Under the radar, women traffic IED parts to Boko Haram
April 11, 2025
In February last year, two women were arrested in Kolofata, Cameroon, near the Nigerian border, for carrying tiny amounts of ammonium nitrate fertiliser. Kolofata’s gendarmerie brigade commander Ntsie Virgile, who told ENACT about this incident, said the women were arrested because the fertiliser has the potential to be used as a precursor for or component of ...
- Europol: AK rifles and grenades seized as firearms trafficking route into France dismantled
April 11, 2025
Seven suspects have been arrested in connection with the gang, which is believed to have sourced high-powered weapons from illegal markets in the Western Balkans and trafficked them into France for onward distribution. The joint operation – supported by Europol and Eurojust – has taken down the full supply chain behind the trafficking route, from source ...
- Japanese Yakuza Leader Pleads Guilty to Nuclear Materials Trafficking, Narcotics, and Weapons Charges
January 8, 2025
Takeshi Ebisawa, 60, of Japan, pleaded guilty in Manhattan, New York, today to conspiring with a network of associates to traffic nuclear materials, including uranium and weapons-grade plutonium, from Burma to other countries, as well as to international narcotics trafficking and weapons charges. “Today’s plea should serve as a stark reminder to those who imperil our ...
- 796 arrests in massive EU action against organised crime
December 13, 2024
Law enforcement authorities from all across the continent came together for the EMPACT Joint Action Days South East Europe (JAD SEE) 2024. From a coordination centre set up in Sarajevo, colleagues from 26 countries took decisive action against key criminal threats in the region. The JAD SEE 2024 saw the joint capacities and resources of the ...
- Hamas built an underground war machine to ensure its own survival
October 5, 2024
Vowing self-sufficiency, Hamas turned a maze of tunnels in Gaza into weapons factories and well-stocked fortifications. A year after the war began, parts of the group remain deeply entrenched. Many analysts had believed that Hamas was heavily dependent on Iran and had smuggled in large shipments of Iranian-made rockets and missiles while making new ones in ...
- Israel: Police raid near Nazareth finds tunnel shaft containing missile and ammunition
September 15, 2024
North District Police said on Saturday that it raided a compound in Yafa an-Naseriyye, an Arab town near Nazareth, and uncovered a stockpile of arms including four guns, hundreds of bullets, cartridges and a missile. Superintendent Daniel (Danny) Levy, the new commissioner, announced the beginning of an operation to curb crime in the north. Read more… Source: Ynet ...
- Israel: Shin Bet seizes Iranian weapons intended for West Bank terrorists
March 25, 2024
The Shin Bet and the IDF on Monday announced that they had busted a vast Iranian network for smuggling more serious weapons into the West Bank to help dramatically increase the danger Palestinian terrorists can present to Israel. Among the weapons seized were two BTB15 significant explosives with shrapnel, five YM-2 anti-tank weapons, four M203 grenade ...
- Israel Police find grenades, anti-tank missile during arrest of arms smuggler
February 18, 2024
Israel Police arrested a man suspected of trafficking illegal weapons, finding a MATADOR anti-tank missile and its shoulder-mounted launcher, among other arms. The suspect, a 24-year-old resident of East Jerusalem, was caught on Friday night in the Galilee district of northern Israel. Nine hand grenades, over a thousand rounds of machine gun ammunition, as well as ...
- U.S. Central Command forces intercepted Iranian weapons shipment intended for Houthis
February 15, 2024
TAMPA, Fla. – A U.S. Coast Guard cutter, forward deployed to the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) area of responsibility, seized advanced conventional weapons and other lethal aid originating in Iran and bound to Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen from a vessel in the Arabian Sea on Jan. 28. The U.S. Coast Guard Sentinel-class fast-response cutter USCGC Clarence ...
- Republic of Georgia says it seized Russia-bound cargo of explosives sent from Ukraine
February 5, 2024
Georgia’s State Security Service said on Monday that it had seized a clandestine shipment of explosives bound for the Russian city of Voronezh from the Ukrainian port of Odesa. The South Caucasus country’s domestic security agency said that the explosives were hidden in a cargo of car batteries that entered Georgia in January overland from Ukraine ...
- Where Is Hamas Getting Its Weapons? Increasingly, From Israel.
January 28, 2024
Israeli military and intelligence officials have concluded that a significant number of weapons used by Hamas in the Oct. 7 attacks and in the war in Gaza came from an unlikely source: the Israeli military itself. For years, analysts have pointed to underground smuggling routes to explain how Hamas stayed so heavily armed despite an Israeli ...
- Mexico demands investigation into US military-grade weapons being used by drug cartels
January 23, 2024
Mexico wants an urgent investigation into how U.S. military-grade weapons are increasingly being found in the hands of Mexican drug cartels, Mexico’s top diplomat said Monday. Mexico’s army is finding belt-fed machine guns, rocket launchers and grenades that are not sold for civilian use in the United States. Read more… Source: ABC News
- USCENTCOM Seizes Iranian Advanced Conventional Weapons Bound for Houthis
January 16, 2024
TAMPA, Fla. – On 11 January 2024, while conducting a flag verification, U.S. CENTCOM Navy forces conducted a night-time seizure of a dhow conducting illegal transport of advanced lethal aid from Iran to resupply Houthi forces in Yemen as part of the Houthis’ ongoing campaign of attacks against international merchant shipping. U.S. Navy SEALs operating from ...
- India: NIA raids 32 places in multi-state crackdown on Babbar Khalsa, Bishnoi gang
January 12, 2024
In a multi-state crackdown on the banned Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) and the Lawrence Bishnoi crime syndicate, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Thursday raided 32 locations in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Chandigarh. The agency said it has seized illegal arms and ammunition, incriminating documents, digital devices and cash during the raids. “The raids ...
- India dismisses reports of artillery shells being supplied to Ukraine
January 4, 2024
India on Thursday dismissed reports that artillery shells made in the country had been supplied to Ukraine by a European nation, with external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal saying there had been no such exports. Several reports, mainly on social media and in some foreign news websites, had stated that 155 mm artillery shells, similar to ...
- INTERPOL: Over 1,700 arrested in landmark operation across Asia targeting Illicit firearms
December 15, 2023
LYON, France – In the first operation coordinated across Asia by INTERPOL against illicit firearms, authorities in 10 countries have made over 1,700 arrests and seized 714 firearms, 921 parts and components, and 45,383 rounds of ammunition. From 13 – 24 November, Operation Trigger-Salvo II aimed to disrupt the cross-border movement of firearms, and determine potential ...
- Israel: Two Israelis recruited by Islamic Jihad arrested for smuggling weapons
September 5, 2023
The Israeli military (IDF), the Shin Bet domestic security agency and the Israel Police announced on Monday that two Israeli citizens living in the northern West Bank had been arrested last month on suspicion of smuggling explosives and other weapons from Jordan. An indictment against them was filed on Tuesday to the District Court in Nazareth ...
- UNSC: Terrorist Groups Remain Significant Threat in Conflict Zones, Neighbouring States
August 25, 2023
Despite the threat level remaining low in non-conflict areas, Da’esh and its affiliates continue to constitute a serious threat in conflict zones and neighbouring countries, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today, underscoring that the use of force alone — with no backing of a clear strategy — can be counter-productive, creating ...
- Trafficking in the Sahel: Muzzling the illicit arms trade
June 10, 2023
In this feature, part of a series exploring the fight against trafficking in the Sahel, UN News focuses on the illegal arms trade that is fuelling conflict and terrorism. In the Sahel, home to 300 million people, it’s a buyer’s market for guns. Insurgency and banditry plague the region, rooted in, among other things, endemic intercommunal ...