Norwegian police reveal massive trade of illegal weapons

Norway's police have revealed the sales of large amounts of illegal weapons and several of the people involved in the crime are affiliated with the police and the Armed Forces, public broadcaster NRK reported Wednesday.

A total of 2,361 weapons -- 1,815 of them being illegal ones, were seized throughout southern Norway in a four-year investigation into illegal weapon sales, and 67 people have been charged, the report said.

"We find several who have been approved weapons collectors, several of the charged who have been or are affiliated with the Armed Forces, and several of the charged who have been or are affiliated with the police," said police inspector Kjell-Johan Abrahamsen.

The weapons include modern machine guns, grenade launchers, semi-automatic guns as well as huge amounts of ammunition. Many of the weapons are intended for use in warfare.

Police from southeastern Norway said in a press release on Wednesday morning that they had since 2015 investigated and uncovered sales of large amounts of illegal weapons.

"The background of the project is a larger number of weapons seized in Telemark in 2015. The investigation further raised concern about the circulation of a large number of illegal weapons," said Lena Reif, the head of the Joint Unit for Investigation and Intelligence in the Southeastern Police District.

In addition, police uncovered the use of falsification by several weapons dealers.

Weapons that had registered as deactivated were traded, and weapons dropped from the Armed Forces have been sold until 2016, the police said.

"When it comes to defence weapons, we have found 122 weapons that have been registered as destroyed by the Armed Forces," police officer Skule Worpvik was quoted as saying.

According to the police, additional 54 weapons that should have been destroyed elsewhere were found, and the weapons might have been planned for foreign markets.

Police have since been in a close dialogue with the Armed Forces, who have changed their routines for the destruction of weapons. The police are also working to strengthen the quality of weapons management, the report said.