James Warren
A LARGE scale arms network that supplied weapons to some of the Costa del Sol’s most violent criminals has been dismantled by the Policia Nacional.
As part of Operation Nongreta, officers have managed to arrest the three ring leaders of the organisation, along with hundreds of weapons including military grade ammunition and hand grenades.
In what seems like a script from a James Bond film, among the arrests include a 70-year-old German arms expert, a direct descendant of one of Hitlers staff and a British drug runner and conman.
Investigations began last year when police along Malaga’s Costa del Sol and Campo de Gibraltar noticed an increase in gun crime using high grade military style weapons.
Investigations into the origin of these weapons brought officers to the doorstep of a retired German arms expert hiding in the mountains of the Coin area of Malaga.
Collaborating with their German counterparts, Spanish Police discovered that the 70-year-old was wanted in Germany for the discovery of an arsenal of weapons buried in a property in Hannover.
In an effort to hide from the authorities, he fled Germany to begin life as a ‘retired pensioner’ in Coin, where he soon began to use his expertise in firearms to work alongside Spanish drug enforcers.
According to reports obtained by the Spanish press, the man had a sophisticated workshop at his home with various metal working tools, where he would work on making disabled firearms ‘live’ again.
Many of the disabled weapons he obtained would come from the Czech Republic and Slovakia and once received, he would remove serial numbers, re-arm the internals and even customise the bodies before selling on.
During the man’s arrest at his remote villa, sniffer dogs discovered a hidden storage area where he kept his catalogue of firearms.
Included in the seizure was 121 hand guns, 22 assault rifles, eight sub machine guns, nearly 10,000 rounds of ammunition and almost two kilograms of military grade explosives.
Alongside the pensioners arrest, a fellow German was identified and arrested thanks to the police investigations.
Officers were led to a rented garage in the Malaga area where another haul of weapons were found, including live anti-tank grenades.
The man in charge of the stock was identified as a far-right neo-nazi in his home country with strong links to arms dealers across Europe.
According to the police report the man had a ‘museum’ of Nazi themed memorabilia including flags, uniforms and reading material.
It is also alleged that the man had ties to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler due to his uncanny similarity to the grandson of one of Hitler’s drivers.
The third arrest acted as an intermediary and dealer for the customised weapons and was quickly identified as a British National with a history of drug trafficking and a large network of criminal contacts.
During the raid on his property in Coin, a further stockpile of weapons was found along with a thousands of euros in cash and false documentaition.
It is alleged that the Brit used to distribute the illegal firearms across Europe in the chassis of luxury cars using fake passports and identities.
There is also evidence of strong ties to Jihadist groups across Spain and the supply of firearms to terrorist organisations.
It is estimated that between the three arrests, the multi-million euro organisation was one of the largest in Europe and has been responsible for one of the Costa del Sol’s most bloody years in gun crime.
