Start and gas pistols are legally purchased within the EU, smuggled into Sweden, and converted into live firearms used to kill.
Thanks to a new trick, the Customs Service and the police were able to strike simultaneously at 34 addresses and seize a large number of weapons.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, house searches were carried out across Sweden. A total of 34 addresses were searched, and 45 weapons were seized, including 29 start and gas pistols, and 16 others whose type has not yet been determined.
34 people are now suspected of smuggling and weapons offenses.
It's a major weapons seizure. We've also taken phones, so it may lead to further investigations and more people being drawn in, says Isabel Thorén, head of the National Firearms Centre, which is run by the police and the Customs Service.
The authorities believe that among those now suspected are preppers, gun enthusiasts, and professional converters who convert pistols into deadly firearms and sell them to criminals.
There are gangs in Sweden buying up weapons in hundreds, says Thorén.
30 percent
The Customs Service estimates that 30 percent of all weapons circulating in criminal gangs are converted start and gas pistols that are easily modified into live firearms.
Last year, over 250 such pistols were seized, and over 50 shootings were linked to the converted pistols.
The problem, says Jesper Liedholm, an expert at the Customs Service, is that weapons that are subject to licensing in Sweden are sold freely to anyone over 18 years old in several EU countries. Thanks to the free movement of goods, these items do not need to be declared to the Customs Service.
This week's operation came about after the Customs Service, with the help of the French customs authority, requested customer information from a French online retailer and thus obtained knowledge of buyers in Sweden.
Purchased weapons
This is a multi-step rocket where we try to influence the market and get help from authorities to map the trade and then act – both to get the weapons out of circulation in Sweden and to stop the flow, he says.
A new approach that is here to stay, according to colleagues.
This is just one store in France. There are more stores in France and more stores in other countries selling these weapons online, says Isabel Thorén.
Will there be more similar operations in the future?
The important message to those who are looking at these weapons is that even if you manage to get the weapon home, there is a high risk that the authorities will come knocking on your door, says Jesper Liedholm.
By gas pistols are meant pistols, revolvers, and other devices that:
can be loaded with cartridges without projectiles but containing a tear-inducing substance intended to be driven out by a propellant charge,
have gas emission mainly or entirely forward in the direction of the barrel,
and have some type of blocking mechanism in the barrel to prevent shooting with live ammunition/projectiles.
By start pistols are meant pistols, revolvers, and other devices that
can be loaded with start/blank cartridges without projectiles or functional parts containing a propellant charge whose sole purpose is to produce a muzzle report,
and have gas emission in a direction other than forward/in the direction of the barrel.
Source: National Forensic Centre, NFC
