74 handguns and automatic rifles seized, 11 firearms traffickers arrested
The Belgian Federal Judicial Police of Limburg (Federale Gerechtelijke Politie van Limburg), with the support of the Austrian Directorate State Protection and Intelligence Service (Direktion Staatsschutz und Nachrichtendienst) and Europol, has seized 74 firearms, dismantled a synthetic drugs lab and arrested 11 individuals in action days conducted in May 2025. Over 20 locations in Belgium and Austria were searched during the operation which targeted a criminal network engaged in international firearms trafficking. Investigations have shown the suspects were trading handguns, assault rifles and even grenade launchers.
On the action day, 50 handguns of one specific make, 13 further handguns, 4 machine guns, 4 rifles, 1 revolver, 2 alarm pistols, 4 large-capacity magazines for automatic weapons, 16 other magazines and 2 homemade clubs were seized. In one location, law enforcement officers found a drug laboratory and over 450 kilos of a novel synthetic drug. Furthermore, the site was used as a storage facility for illegal cigarettes.
Months-long investigation into firearms traffickers’ network
Belgian law enforcement had been investigating this criminal network for months, gaining insight into the organisers, their helpers and various buyers. The firearms traffickers based in Belgium allegedly had contacts with weapon traffickers based all over Europe, including Austria. The Austrian suspects, of which two were arrested in Belgium, are believed to have supplied a large number of weapons to the criminal network. They were already known to law enforcement for obtaining large amounts of weapon parts in Austria and illegally exporting them.
Certain weapon parts can be obtained without a license in Austria. This legal situation is often misused by criminals to assemble weapons with parts obtained from various sources. After the arrest of the two individuals residing in Austria and the seizure of 50 handguns by the Belgian police, the Austrian Directorate State Protection and Intelligence Service was able to determine that the grips of these weapons were purchased in Austria. Subsequently, house searches were carried out at the residences of those arrested, as a result of which several data storage devices were seized.
Europol supported the national investigations with operational analysis and coordinated the international cooperation by organising operational meetings. On the action day conducted in Belgium, a Europol expert was deployed with a mobile office to provide cross-checks of new evidence against Europol’s databases.
