MOSCOW. Jan 21 (Interfax) - The Federal Security Service and the Russian Interior Ministry's Main Criminal Investigation Department have jointly stopped the activity of a group dealing firearms, ammunition, explosive devices and explosives in the Northwestern Federal District.
"The organizer of the criminal business and his nine accomplices were caught selling an arms batch in the town of Velikiye Luki in the Pskov region in mid-January 2015," the Federal Security Service public relations center said.
A total of 72 pieces of firearms (including machine guns, submachine guns, pistols, revolvers, machine pistols, rifles and carbines made in Russia and abroad), over 300 component parts of weapons, a homemade bomb, over 21 kilograms of explosives, twelve grenades, 64 detonators of varying modifications, more than 12,000 shells and large quantities of drugs were seized in urgent operations. Four workshops repairing and modernizing weapons and making ammunition and bombs were shut down.
Additional investigative and operative procedures are underway to process the illegal activity of the criminal group and to verify its possible involvement in grave crimes committed in the Russian Federation.