Posted on 09/09/2001 5:28:37 AM PDT by oxi-nato
KOPER, Slovenia, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Slovenian authorities said on Friday they had seized 48 tonnes of weapons in the port of Koper, shipped from Malaysia and probably intended for strifetorn Macedonia or Kosovo. "The customs authorities discovered on Monday four containers packed to the roof with all sorts of weapons, from very old museum pieces to relatively modern firearms," Milan Bogatic, director of Koper customs, told a news conference.
He said the weapons were discovered during a routine check of the containers' contents and documents, which described the shipment as "machine parts" from Malaysia brought via Malta. "A 50-year-old Austrian citizen with the initials M.H. was detained on Wednesday at the Slovenian town of Ljubelj on the Austrian border and is currently under investigation," said Ljubo Jovanovic, chief of Koper police's organised crime unit. "The detainee is very well known to Slovenian police, since he was previously connected with illegal arms-trafficking to war zones in the countries of former Yugoslavia," Jovanovic added.
"Apparently, the shipment had been originally scheduled to head to Great Britain, but then, according to the documentation, was diverted to Koper," Jovanovic said. He said Slovenian police had informed authorities in Britain and in neighbouring Austria about the seizure. According to documents obtained by the police, the shipment was next to have been transported through Austria by train or road.
The captured arms have been transferred to a military depot. Journalists were shown pictures of pistols, machineguns, mortars and grenade launchers. Jovanovic said a British port and company were mentioned in the shipping documents but he declined to give details. He ruled out the possibility that the weapons might have been destined for criminal organisations in Austria or elsewhere in central Europe. "The most probable destination of these firearms is one of the crisis zones in the Balkans," he said.
It would be fun to see examples of the older pieces. I wonder where all of these great collectible firearms originated.
Perhaps, the Jihad is headed to England?
Ditto!!
I don't think so. :)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.