SBU exposes seven dealers in Russian ‘trophy’ weapons in four regions of Ukraine

The Security Service and the National Police prevented the illegal sale of trophy weapons and ammunition in four regions of Ukraine.

This was reported by the SBU press service.

'During the complex measures in Dnipro, as well as in Transcarpathian, Ternopil and Zhytomyr Regions, 7 underground arms dealers were detained. Among the items seized from the suspects are Russian Shmel grenade launchers, Kalashnikovs and more than 3 kg of explosives,’ the statement said.

For example, in Dnipro: a local businessman was detained who illegally exported trophy weapons from the areas of former battles on the eastern front to sell them to criminals. The suspect set up a cache on the territory of his service station for covert storage of munitions.

In Transcarpathian Region, a 50-year-old resident of Berehove was detained red-handed on attempting to clandestinely sell automatic weapons, combat grenades and a large batch of TNT. The offender was hiding all of this in an underground cache he had set up in the woods near his private home.

In Ternopil Region, two more dealers were exposed who offered trophy weapons through specialised online forums and then sent them to "customers" as "car parts" by post.

In Zhytomyr Region, three residents of Korosten, who had previously been prosecuted for theft, were exposed for illegal arms trafficking.

The defendants smuggled munitions from the sites of former hostilities in eastern Ukraine, where they were ‘volunteers’, and then sold the found weapons through their personal criminal connections.

Based on the SBU materials, the detainees were served a notice of suspicion under Part 1 Article 263 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (illegal handling of weapons, ammunition or explosives).

The criminals are in custody. They face up to 7 years in prison.