Posted on 06/01/2022 7:25:47 PM PDT by Mount Athos
Many of the weapons being sent to Ukraine will eventually wind up in criminal hands in Europe and beyond, Interpol's chief warned Wednesday, urging countries to start scrutinising arms-tracking databases.
"The high availability of weapons during the current conflict will result in the proliferation in illicit arms in the post-conflict phase," Interpol Secretary General Juergen Stock said.
That will only empower organised crime groups that have become increasingly global operations, capable of exploiting the chaos created from Russia's bombardments over the past three months.
"This will come, I have no doubts... Criminals are already now, here as we speak, focussing on that," Stark told the Anglo-American Press Association in Paris, where he travelled from Interpol's headquarters in Lyon, southeast France.
Kyiv's Western allies have shipped tonnes of military hardware to Ukraine as it tries to fend off Russian forces that have already seized swathes of territory in the east and south.
US President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that Washington would now send "more advanced rocket systems and munitions," after providing or pledging thousands of assault rifles as well as anti-tank rockets.
"Even weapons that are used by the military, heavy weapons, will be available on the criminal market," Stock warned.
"We are already encouraging member countries, we have a database on sharing information on weapons, to use these databases because no region or country can deal with it in isolation," he said.
"The criminals I'm talking about are operating globally, so these weapons will be exchanged across continents."
Stock added that the Ukraine conflict has also prompted a spike in "large-scale fertiliser thefts as well as increased counterfeit agro-chemicals, as these commodities have become increasingly valuable."
"The increase in fuel prices has also resulted in a rise in fuel thefts in Europe and other regions," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at barrons.com ...
Let’s go, Brandon.
Well, is this really a bad thing?
With the collapse of the economy the EU will end up a mess of civil wars and resumed conflicts between the member countries. We will hear yet again about IRA, Basques, etc, etc. Muslim no-police inner cities.
All of them need arms.
Sweet. I always wanted an AK12 and a Pecheneg LMG. Hopefully there’ll be illicit ammo too. Gonna need it
This is the plan... The next summer of riots will be armed with some of these weapons. Of course law abiding citizens will have to hand in their arms first. This is the plan...
Credible estimates are that 30% of arms sent currently to Ukraine by the US have been diverted to international black markets. As the situation devolves into squalor and bathos, I expect that figure to double. Think Afghanistan redux.
I don’t think the people proliferating arms really care where they end up as long as they cause trouble 🤪
So the USA is funding crime throughout the world.
Really very large caliber like Stolen President Bidet.
where’s my afghan surplus?
Between Afghanistan and Ukraine Biden is arming a whole lot of bad guys with a whole lot of firepower.
Nothing like the dreaded 9mm but still.
So we armed the Taliban after leaving Afghanistan, we will arm bad actors in Ukraine (either a corrupt Ukraine or Russia directly), and China is looking forward to us leaving arms behind after they take over Taiwan. Biden is arming the world, one bad foreign policy mistake at a time.
And another 30-40% end up captured by Russian forces.
Between this and the weapons left in Afghanistan, there are going to be some well-armed groups “gunning” for the U.S.
Sorry, can't keep a straight face. Ya'll have fun, now...
Accidentally on purpose.
You reap what you sow
Good...gives the Euro trash politicians something to fear.
These weapons were hidden even during the Soviet-era. So much for gun control.
Americans and many Europeans tend to think there are few weapons available in Europe. In fact, there's quite a bit of leftover ordnance from the world wars floating around, and more from the wars in Yugoslavia in the 90s: that's how the Bataclan terrorists got some AKs. And occasionally thieves go after an armored car in Europe with RPGs.
The Ukraine war is only marginally going to increase the flow of weaponry.
According to the US Customs report I read, the illegal small arms trade originates in Germany and Eastern Europe. The arms are smuggled into Venezuela and then shipped to Central America. From Central America, the arms are sold to the Mexican cartels and other interested parties.
So anyone looking for the latest in RPGs, machineguns, mines, grenades and battle rifles can go shopping in Mexico.
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