Weapons trafficking in Remscheid: Co-defendant admits to charges in court
A 35-year-old man admitted before the Wuppertal Regional Court to involvement in illegal dealings with a vast weapons cache. Police seized hundreds of firearms and almost 100,000 rounds of ammunition from a building in Remscheid city centre.
Weapons trafficking in Remscheid: Co-defendant admits to charges in court
Before the Wuppertal Regional Court, a 35-year-old defendant acknowledged the accusations levelled against him. His legal representative placed on record that the indictment was correct in its essential points. The young man is alleged to have assisted in the distribution of military weapons that originated from a depot in Remscheid.
The alleged mastermind is a 60-year-old car mechanic. In his building complex in the city centre, officers made one of the largest weapons finds of recent decades during a large-scale raid last autumn. The investigators recovered around 300 operational firearms in total. The collection comprised 125 fully automatic rifles, 67 submachine guns, 51 pistols, 32 long-barrelled rifles, eleven revolvers and thirteen anti-tank weapons. They also discovered 38 fragmentation grenades and almost 100,000 rounds.
The hiding places were extremely ingeniously constructed. Some areas were concealed behind invisible doors that could only be opened via secret mechanisms. Other storage locations lay behind display cases or partition walls. A particularly well-concealed room containing 29 machine guns and three anti-tank rifles was only discovered after the main suspect revealed it to investigators.
Initially, the officers had come across a kind of private museum in which uniforms, photographs and military items from the Nazi era were displayed. Behind it, however, lay the illegal stockpiles. In the basement, the officers also found a workshop with equipment that may have been used to restore old, inoperative weapons to working condition.
According to the prosecution's account, the 60-year-old delivered six submachine guns and a revolver, including ammunition, to a 38-year-old intermediary. The intermediary then distributed part of the consignment to buyers together with the 35-year-old. Undercover investigators uncovered the deal, whereupon all three were arrested on the A1 motorway.
A witness from Poland confirmed the trade in military weapons. Investigators believe the buyers were from organised crime.
The presiding judge, citing a comprehensive confession, stated the following sentencing ranges: seven to eight years for the main defendant, between three years and three months and four years for the 38-year-old, and two to three years for the 35-year-old. The hearing continues on 15 July.
Source: n-tv
Source: n-tv