MOSCOW, February 26 (RIA Novosti) – Police has confiscated over 100 pieces of weaponry during a raid on an apartment in eastern Moscow owned by a suspected arms dealer.
“The seized arsenal included 24 Kalashnikov assault rifles, 34 Makarov handguns, 14 TT pistols, four Nagan revolvers, a Walther and a Parabellum pistols, three machine-guns, six rifles, a hand grenade and several fuses,” police said in a statement on Monday.
The suspect, a 40-year-old Muscovite whose identity has not been revealed, has set up a workshop in his apartment, repaired and modified old weapons and resold them on the “black market.”
The seized weaponry has been sent for forensic ballistic tests, the statement said.
According to experts, many illegal weapons in Russia originate from ex-Soviet arsenals or come as spoils found on World War II battlefields.
The threat of a mandatory eight-year prison sentence for weapons violations does not stop illicit arms dealers as the business is very lucrative, police officials complain.
