Number of grenades seized rises Police: Weapons smuggled into UK

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 devices were seized by UK authorities, compared to 40 between 2013 and 2017.

The weapons are mainly from the former Yugoslavia and in the most recent seizures, in Sussex and Scotland, were attached to the bottom of vehicles.

In the largest haul, Police Scotland recovered six grenades and 1.5kg of dynamite.

Chris Farrimond, 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 country appears to be on the rise, the number of devices exploded remains very low, on average one per year between 2013 and 2017.

This has led investigators to fear there are stashes of unused weapons in the country in criminal hands.

Mr Farrimond: “If we just work on the figures we know about, the ones that have been recovered over the past four years and the ones that we know of that have been exploded, then somewhere in the UK there are a number of grenades that are in criminal hands and have not been used.”

The devices were used three times in buildings and once against a vehicle between 2013 and 2017.

“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.

“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.”