Smuggled grenades ‘could fall into hands of terrorists’
INVESTIGATORS have seen a sharp rise in the number of grenades seized from criminals trying to smuggle weapons into the UK.
Between January and April this year alone 17 of the devices were seized by UK authorities, compared to 40 that were discovered in the four-year period ending in 2017.
The weapons originate mainly from the former Yugoslavia. In the most recent seizures, in Sussex and Scotland, they were attached to the bottom of vehicles. In the largest haul, Police Scotland recovered six grenades and 1.5kg of dynamite.
Chris Farrimond, the deputy director of investigations at the National Crime Agency, said the devices are generally smuggled over land on lorries or trailers that arrive by ferry.
While the number of grenades coming into the UK appears to be on the rise, the number exploded remains very low, on average one per year between 2013 and 2017. This has led investigators to fear there are stashes of the unused weapons in criminal hands. Mr Farrimond: “Somewhere, somehow in the UK there are a number of grenades that are in criminal hands and have not been used.
“They don’t get used very often but where they have we have fortunately seen them not used in crowded areas, but they’ve been used quite specifically against either buildings or a vehicles,” he added.
“Not one of these was actually used against a person. They were used to create fear and or criminal damage. It was almost a warning device.”
Mr Farrimond said there are concerns that the weapons – that cost between £250-£750 on the street – could fall into terrorist hands.
He said: “The bottom line is that firearms do get offered up for sale and so then the question is how accessible is that criminal sale area to somebody who wants to create a terrorist offence. Of course we have a concern that they could fall into terrorist hands.”
Of the 17 grenades seized so far this year, 12 were military and viable; one was improvised, three were imitation or deactivated, and one was real but not viable.