ROME—When police raided a warehouse in Andalusia, Spain, last week, they found more than the illicit gun running enterprise they knew they'd cracked. They also found a Third Reich shrine, complete with male and female mannequins dressed up in pristine Nazi uniforms, portraits of Adolf Hitler on the walls, and rare emblems and medals from the Nazi era.
Police arrested a British man and two Germans on the site who were modifying weapons bought in eastern Europe for resale, including scraping off serial numbers and amping up automatic capabilities with the aim of selling them to drug traffickers across Europe, according to the Spanish Civil Guard. The three men were also charged with drug trafficking and falsifying documents.
In addition to the cache of 160 firearms—including 22 AK-47 assault rifles, eight submachine guns, 121 short weapons including pistols, eight silencers, 10,000 bullets, and a grenade with 1.5 kilograms of explosives—they also found doctored gun licenses and other falsified documents, according to a statement by Spain’s Civil Guard. Some of the weapons were already packed up in hermetically sealed bags to be delivered.