Arrested for manufacturing weapons with a 3D printer in his home in Bermeo

A 51-year-old man has been arrested by the Civil Guard after dismantling a clandestine workshop in Bermeo (Vizcaya) for the manufacture of homemade weapons, metal ammunition, artifacts and explosive mixtures using 3D printing. Several firearms have been seized at the scene, including ammunition and ready-to-use war weapons. Likewise, three assault rifles, ammunition pistols, a cannon shotgun, five explosive devices, almost 200 electric initiators, three kilos of gunpowder, more than six kilos of precursors to create explosive mixtures, about 400 metal cartridges and two 3D printers, among others. Several of the weapons had their serial numbers erased or lacked them, which shows their illegal origin. As reported by the armed institute, the operation began in December 2021, when it became known, through the Intelligence Center against the Terrorism and Organized Crime (CITCO), of a suspicious transaction of explosive precursors through an online trading platform. Despite the security measures adopted by the alleged perpetrator to avoid being discovered, it was possible to identify a 51-year-old individual residing in Bermeo (Bizkaia). Likewise, it was possible to verify how this person would have acquired the precursors for the manufacture of explosive mixtures, such as gunpowder, for unknown purposes. As the investigation progressed, his illegal possession of several firearms was also discovered (some of them introduced through smuggling from abroad) and the manufacture of firearms or their essential components using 3D printers. For this reason, this person’s home and garage were searched, where five small improvised explosive devices already assembled and equipped were seized. of their respective remote electrical detonation systems, as well as 197 electrical initiators, around 3 kilos of gunpowder and 6.5 kilos of precursors and chemical substances used for the homemade manufacture of these devices and explosive mixtures. Due to their danger, the three assault rifles, classified as weapons of war, both for its caliber and its ability to fire automatically (machine gun), so its possession is totally prohibited to individuals. In addition, it so happens that they were originally unused (deactivated) weapons that the detainee had manipulated in his clandestine workshop to reactivate them, leaving them again in conditions for real fire. Two other disassembled pistols and numerous frames were also seized. , slides, semi-finished handcrafted cannons, adapters for coupling silencers and other parts and tools, which showed that the detainee was also engaged in the illegal manufacture of weapons by assembling parts of different origins. For that purpose he possessed also two state-of-the-art 3D printers with which he had already manufactured several pistol frames, grips and other parts that, together with the rest of the metal parts of intervened weapons, would be used for the assembly of complete weapons. For this, it also had numerous resin containers for 3D printing and PLA filament spools, which are the raw material used for its manufacture. The detainee, who lacked a weapons license and was therefore prevented from acquiring the ammunition that he needed for the weapons that he manufactured and possessed illegally, he was also engaged in the homemade manufacture of this ammunition, for which he had a workshop set up in a closed garage in the basement of a nearby building, where he had workbenches set up with three cartridge reloading machines, hundreds of empty cases, projectiles, pistons (percussion caps) and gunpowder for the homemade manufacture of ammunition of calibers 45 ACP, 6.35 ms., 9 mm parabellum, 44 magnum and 223 Remington, some of them cataloged as a war caliber. About 400 finished and loaded cartridges of the aforementioned calibers, ready to be used, were found in the garage. Given the amount of ammunition, it is not ruled out that part of the ammunition it manufactured was dedicated to its illegal sale to third parties. The operation has been carried out by the Information Headquarters (UCE 3) of the Civil Guard with the support of the Information Group of the Bizkaia Command, the Explosives Deactivation Group (GEDEX) of Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, the Rapid Action Group (GAR) and the Cinological Service (weapon and explosive detection dogs).