I ! #11 FEBRUARY 2020 Introduc%on Noticias... · 2020. 3. 2. · 15 -16 APRIL 2020 MEETING OAP 7.1...

I !" #11 FEBRUARY 2020

Introduc%on by Richard Martens

Co-driver Empact Firearms

Dutch Na%onal Police

By edi!ng this #11 edi!on I took the oppor-

tunity to write this column for the second

!me. The first !me was on behalf of the first

edi!on in May 2017.

With the excellent help of Mar!n van der Meij

from EUROPOL AP Weapons and Explosives

we were able to finish this #11 edi!on.

As ac!on leader 1.1. “improving intelligence

picture” I find this newsle$er an excellent

tool to exchange informa!on about seizures,

modus operandi, interes!ng arrests and/or

other issues like educa!on and “safe the

dates”.

During the last strategic mee!ng I was able to

highlight this newsle$er -next to the other

ac!vi!es in my OAP- to all par!cipants invi!ng

everyone to deliver content for this #11 edi-

!on to come.

Listening to all ac!on leaders and their plans

for 2020 I felt very proud to be a part of this

“firearms family” as our driver José ROMERO

likes to call us.

We designed a lot of ac!vi!es which contrib-

ute to a well thought offence against the Illicit

trafficking of firearms.

In my first column May 2017 I wrote that

different legisla!on, priori!es, local incidents

and the poli!cal outlines some!mes make it a

challenge to have common

goals between Member States. I think that is

s!ll the case. These we cannot change. But

what we can change is to improve the use of

our “family members”.

In my opinion the most important ingredient

is knowing and using your network. Ge'ng in

contact and talk about relevant topics. This is

the accelerant which also leads to “improve

the intelligence picture”.

As preparing this #11 edi!on I was a bit disap-

pointed that only a few countries provided

content for this #11 edi!on. This newsle$er is

not a EUROPOL or Dutch Police product. It is a

shared pla(orm.

As stated before I truly believe that this news-

le$er can be the accelerant so I will not stop

invi!ng my “family members” to overload me

with content. So my dear colleagues I aim at

many edi!ons to come and you are kindly

invited to be one of these accelerators.

Richard Martens, a proud family member, co

-driver EMPACT Firearms and ac!on leader

1.1

1

www.europol.europa.eu E M P A C T / European Mul!disciplinary Pla(orm Against Criminal Threats

[email protected]

IN THIS ISSUE

· INTRODUCTION BY

· SAVE THE DATES

· FRONTEX JAD

· EMPACT KICK-OFF MEETING

· COOPERATION SPAIN-

PORTUGAL

· CHANGE BLANC GUNS

NORWAY

· OCG DISMANTLED SPAIN

· DUTCH SEIZURES

· OPERATION CICLOPE

· SEIZURES LATVIA

· OPERATION TANGERINA

· EUROSUR FUSION SERVICES

(EFS)

To keep this Bulle!n live please contrib-

ute to this ini!a!ve by sharing infor-

ma!on about relevant topics through

Siena to NL and Europol or email to :

Empact: [email protected]

Europol: [email protected]

Europol Unclassified—BPL

[email protected]

2


SAVE THE DATES

19 MARCH 2020

CEPOL WEBINAR

26-27 MARCH 2020

JAD MEETING

SARAJEVO

15-16 APRIL 2020

MEETING OAP 7.1

SPAIN

28-29 APRIL 2020

EFE MEETING

INTERPOL, LYON

5-7 MAY 2020

IFFS CONFERENCE

CANADA

12-13 MAY 2020

EMPACT STRATEGIC MEETING

EUROPOL HQ

HIGHLIGHT

On 20 and 21 January the 2020 Empact

Firearms Kick-off mee!ng was held at

Europol HQ with par!cipants from all

opera!onal ac!vi!es. During the mee!ng

the opera!onal plans for 2020 were ex-

plained. We are looking forward for a

frui(ul coopera!on in 2020.

The next strategic Empact mee!ng is

planned to take place on 12 and 13 May

at Europol. Invita!ons will be shared

through the official channels.

Frontex Joint Action Days

The European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex, coordinated and implement-

ed five Joint Ac!on Days (JADs) in the framework of the EU Policy Cycle/EMPACT,

targe!ng par!cular serious and organized crime priori!es such as those related to

motor vehicles, trafficking in human beings, facilitated illegal immigra!on, excise and

document fraud, and drugs trafficking;

In close coopera!on with numerous EU and non EU partners, agencies and interna-

!onal organisa!ons, these JADs highlighted the mul! criminal scope of unlawful acts

related to the borders and possibili!es to commonly counteract them. Although the

primary objec!ve was to prevent and detect

the aforemen!oned criminal ac!vi!es across the EU external land borders, as well as

inland, the joint ac!vi!es and the exchange of informa!on between the stakehold-

ers, revealed other illegal undertakings such as trafficking of firearms and ammuni-

!on.

Only during the short term JADs Arktos, Danube 4 and Mobile 2 law enforcement

agencies and border authori!es led to the seizures of 41 firearms, 7 gas weapons,

384 pieces of 9 mm ammuni!on

and 200 000 pieces of Flobert ammuni!on (6mm);

The Joint Ac!on Days were coordinated under the umbrella of the European Mul!-

disciplinary Pla(orm against Criminal Threats (EMPACT) as part of the EU Policy Cy-

cle, a four-year plan for the fight against serious and organised crime. It brings to-

gether law enforcement authori!es of the EU Member States, European agencies

and interna!onal organisa!ons to jointly strengthen Europe’s borders and internal

security. The results and intelligence gathered will help in ongoing and future inves!-

ga!ons.


Seized firearm parts (6 barrels, 2 plas"c

magazines for STRIBOG firearm, 3 metal

magazines, STRIBOG

components such as grip, frame, barrel

and lock, 2 SKORPION machine guns with

magazine and recoil springs with three

other elements for their installa"on

without required firearm licence; (Joint

Ac"on Day Mobile 2, 2019)

35 magazines for Glock 17 (9 mm )

3 magazines for 7,62 x 51 ammuni-

"on, 1 magazine for 5,56 x 45 and

two bolts seized by Polish Border

Guard during Joint Ac"on Day

Mobile 2. In addi"on 4 magazines

with capacity of 50 pieces of 9 mm

ammuni"on each frequently used

for illegally modified fully automa"c

Glock 17 pistols.

3

Cooperation Portuguese Public

Security Police and the Guardia Civil of

the Kingdom of Spain

The Portuguese Public Security Police (PSP), which have the na!onal competences of licensing, control and supervision of all ac!vi-

!es related to weapons, ammuni!on and explosive products, in collabora!on and coopera!on with the Guardia Civil of the King-

dom of Spain, which have iden!cal competences for their country, held on January 16, 2020, in Madrid, the 1st bilateral mee!ng

under the Memorandum of Understanding, celebrated between

these police bodies in Lisbon in April 2019.

The PSP delega!on, made up of elements from the Weapons and

Explosives Department, headed by its Director, Superintendent Pedro

Moura, met with his counterparts at the Central Weapons and Explo-

sives Branch, headed by Brigadier General D. San!ago Caballero

Mendaña, having also being present, among other officers, the EM-

PACT FIREARMS priority driver, Lieutenant Colonel José Romero. At

the opening session of the mee!ng, was also present the Portuguese

Liaison Officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs at the Portuguese

Embassy in Madrid, Chief Superintendent José Oliveira.

The main objec!ve of the mee!ng was to strengthen the exis!ng

coopera!on and to more effec!vely develop working methods in the

areas of exclusive competence, either weapons and ammuni!on, or

explosives.

Among the issues addressed, issues related to the licensing of weapons and European legisla!on, the exchange of informa!on, the

joint training of elements from the PSP and the Guardia Civil, with the possibility of trainees from both countries a$ending courses

organized by the PSP and by Guardia Civil, as well as courses in CEPOL, ways of opera!onalizing the fight against arms trafficking

between Spain and Portugal, with joint opera!ons and the realiza!on of joint projects co-financed by the community ins!tu!ons,

namely the development of the so-called Focal SF Project, which aims to develop the so-called Firearms Focal Points.



4


Positive results Dutch Operations


Operation HOEN

Project ALPHA

Operation GLENWOOD

Different units from the National Police of the

Netherlands were able to successfully close 3

different cases at the end of 2019. One of the

units was investigating a Croatian family liv-

ing in the Netherlands. This family is under

suspicion of large scale import of firearms in

the Netherlands

An investigation against a criminal family living on a trailer park in Oost-Brabant responsible for internation-al drug and weapon traf-ficking, excessive violence and threatening. During searches tens of firearms have been seized.

An investigation into a criminal family which since 2015 has been involved in large scale import of firearms from Slovakia. Bothg the acoustic and later the flobert weapons were purchased, converted into live firing state and distributed into the criminal market.

By conducting these investiga-tions the Dutch Police stopped the large scale illicit trafficking of firearms from these three re-gions.

It is believed these criminal net-works where able to traffic (import AND export) hundreds or more firearms, ammunition and explosives.

NORWAY HAS NOW STOPPED

THE FREE SALE OF BLANK

GUNS

In Norway, blank guns have been sold without any kind of control or registration until recently. The trend in Norway is the same as in the other European countries. There has been an increase in the number of seized converted blank guns and converted blank guns used in shootings. NCIS Norway has focused on getting the free sale stopped for some years. In 2018 NCIS Nor-way compiled a thematic report and several measures were been taken in order to raise awareness of the problem in the police and other relevant authorities. Based on the fact that con-verted blank guns were used in several shoot-ings, the police got a court order to search the assumed largest online-store in Norway selling blank guns, especially Zoraki and Ekol. A large number of models were seized and taken for fo-rensic examination. It turned out that all of them

were easily convertible. The list of customers led to several interesting cases. In one of the follow-ing house-searches, 68 converted blank guns were seized. The National Police Directorate has now clarified the interpretation of the Norwegian firearms leg-islation, and the free sale of blank guns in Nor-way has come to an end.

5


OCG DISMANTLED AND-

NUMEROUS WEAPONS

CONFISCATED OPERATION

"CICLOPE” The ES unit (GC-Información) dismantled an orga-nized group settled in the region of Cantabria (Spain) involved in arms trafficking from France. they ac-quired them from other traffickers or at arms fairs, bringing them illegally into Spain by means of vehi-cles with double bottoms, which were preceded dur-ing their transfer by other vehicles acting as a 'shuttle' to warn of possible police controls.

Once the people responsible for the organization, the people in charge of moving and concealing the weap-ons, the intermediaries in their sale, as well as sever-al of their buyers have been identified, throughout the month of July 2019, in coordination with the French Judicial Police, the operation was exploited by detain-ing or charging 26 people (24 in Spain and 2 in France), and proceeding to the seizure of 196 fire-arms (121 handguns, 71 long firearms and 4 war weapons), 1 gun silencer, 6.282 cartridges of differ-ent calibers, 104.350 cash, as well as abundant pods, projectiles, gunpowder, gun primers, etc. for the re-loading of metal ammunition.

The results of this operation were contributed to EM-PACT FIREARMS OA 2.5 (Op CAVA, on control of arms fairs).


6


SEIZURES STATE POLICE LATVIA


14.10.2019 as a result of operational and investigative activities, within the course of criminal proceedings, state police officers with-drew weapons and ammunition during their search:

- 21 pieces of firearms (5 pieces handguns, 1 piece machine gun); - 55 pieces of essential components of firearms; - 246 pieces for blasting devices and components thereof; - 140 detonators; - 248 pieces of fire weapon ammunition units; -1 piece pneumatic rifle; -1.5 kg explosives (trotyl)

18.12.2019 in the course of criminal searches, State Police officers seized:

- Items similar to firearms - 3 pieces (carbines, two of them with projectile silencers and optical sights) - Pistol-like object - 1 piece. (nagan system revolver), - Firearms ammunition of different calibre - 763 items, - 26 manuals (f-1).

27.11.2019 During a search of criminal proceedings, the State Police officers found and seized: - Self-made 9mm caliber firearms - 2 pcs. (semi-automatic pistols), - Shotgun with optical sights - 1 piece, - Essential components of firearms - 5 pieces (smoothbore barrel of a firearm, mauser carbine barrel and lock), - Ammunition of different caliber - 184 pieces, - Gunpowder - 30 gr. pieces

03.09.2019 As a result of operational and investigative activities in the framework of criminal proceedings, the State Police officers have been withdrawn from movement: - 12 pieces Firearms (4 guns, 1 machine gun, 6 carbines, 1 shotgun); - 4 pieces Essential components of firearms; - 3 pieces Gas pistols, - 13 pieces Components for blasting devices; - 2 pieces Electron detonators; - 1 piece. Pneumatic firearm (rifle), - 1462 pcs. Ammunition of different caliber firearms; - 17.4 kg of gunpowder; - 3.7 kg of trotyl.

7


OPERATION

TANGERINA In the framework of this opera!on, in November

2019, an individual was arrested in Miranda de Ebro

(Burgos) by the Spanish unit (GC-Información). This

man had purchased several firearms, including sever-

al war weapons, via the Internet and brought them

into our country illegally by means of postal packages

from the Slovak armory, AFG SECURITY CORPORA-

TION, from which came weapons used in the Jihadist

a$acks in Paris (2015). The arrested had a clandes-

!ne workshop installed in his home where he worked

on the reac!va!on of these firearms so that they

could once again be used for real fire, as well as on

the handmade manufacture of metal cartridges for

these weapons; this workshop was equipped with all

types of machinery such as lathe, milling machine,

column drill, welding equipment, etc. with which he

handled these firearms.

In this clandes!ne workshop, the aforemen!oned

detainee was also devoted to the manufacture of

handmade explosive devices based on mixtures of

precursor chemicals, which he introduced into closed

metal containers to which he added steel screws and

steel bearings as shrapnel to increase their

destruc!ve power. He even had cyanide powder

which, if it had been a$ached to one of these devic-

es, could have been disseminated, increasing its le-

thality.

During the searches carried out, the following were

seized: 26 ac!ve firearms (two of them for war),

bulletproof vests, silencers and more than 2.800 car-

tridges of different calibers as well as 17 improvised

explosive devices (5 hand grenade type, 6 tube bomb

and 4 cast iron bomb, 1 of ball sphere and 1 termite)

already assembled, loaded and ready to use, many of

them with shrapnel; as well as more than 30

kilograms of different chemical substances precursors

of explosives, laboratory material (test tubes, flasks,

precipita!on containers, etc.) for their mixture; elec-

tric detonators and fuses.

The results of this opera!on were contributed to

EMPACT FIREARMS OA 2.4 (Op ARMSTRONG, on

arms trafficking through postal parcels).


8

The EUROSUR Fusion services (EFS) implementation and

evolution

The EUROSUR Fusion Services are a set of tools that combined or as stand-alone product aim to support law enforcement officers at the external borders of the European Union. Under the Situ-ational Awareness and Monitoring Division of Frontex, the Information Fusion Centre (IFC) is the entity managing the delivery and evolution of existing services while preparing new ones based on users’ needs, a task entrusted to the Agency by the REGULATION (EU) 2019/1896 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 13 November 2019 on the European Border and Coast Guard.

Our vision is to provide high quality services, sup-porting and being of added value to operational ac-tivities, which in practice means that a variety of data sources are fused together into customized, fully integrated services and visualised. These cus-tomized services are then delivered to EU Member States’ authorities and other partners via different channels tailored according to end user needs.

Currently Frontex holds a catalogue of 17 services, for that EFS makes extensive use of satellite data, either optical or radar imagery, vessels positioning data and even real time video and data captured by

our fix wing aircrafts and remotely piloted aircraft systems under the Multipurpose Aerial Sur-veillance service, all together allows the operators and analysts to increase their knowledge in a specific area and to have a better and close to the real time situational awareness for sound de-cision making.

Let’s get in situation, in the case you want to locate a suspicious vessel bringing firearms into the EU you could use EFS vessel tracking tools with extended trackback up to 2 years, or even consider the use of optical imagery to locate the vessel in your area of interest, we could also track that vessel for you with our experience Vessel Tracker team. Similar services can be used in the land domain applying surveillance via satellite imagery or collecting information with the IMINT services, on the top of that our aircrafts could provide real time video and data of suspi-cious activity. We aim to find the best service fusion in each operational situation.

A team of expert EFS Service Managers deals with the direct service implementation in the Member States providing support and trainings when and where needed ensuring that these technologies are applied in a fit-for-purpose and cost efficient way. In addition to that several operational exercises are carried every year in order to test and calibrate the services and their newest capabilities. To identify interested MS/SAC an annual call of interest is launched via offi-cial channels.

To benefit of EFS a service request is sent via the National Coordination Centre (NCC) to the Infor-mation Fusion Centre in Frontex - NCC were creat-ed following the EUROSUR Regulation in each Member State and they centralize the access at national level -, while a separate procedure is ap-plied for EU institutions and agencies.

Frontex EUROSUR Fusion Services are there to support you, a complimentary capability based on state-of-the-art technology at your disposal and available to counter act cross-border-crime.

Do you want to know more? Feel free to contact directly with us at [email protected].



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