SAMARA. Jan 18 (Interfax) - Operatives of the Federal Security Service branch for the Samara region held in Samara two local residents, who are involved in the making and sale of combat weapons, a source in the regional law enforcement agencies told Interfax on Wednesday.
A worker of a technical maintenance center, who was born in 1958, and a security guard, who was born in 1965, were driving a Toyota RAV-4 all-terrain vehicle on Tuesday when their car was stopped by operatives, he said. A MA-136c rifle (the analogue of a Kalashnikov assault rifle) with five magazines converted for automatic fire was discovered and seized from the car.
A TT pistol with five magazines and six Nagan revolvers converted from weight-size mock-ups for combat cartridge fire, an improvised silencer, parts for a Kalashnikov assault rifle and 563 rounds of munitions of different calibers were discovered and seized at the residence of a detainee later, the source said.
According to the preliminary theory, the suspects were selling weapons through the Internet for buyers in Russia and Ukraine, he also said.
"Weight-size mock-ups are actually weapons, which have 'deactivated' - the striking pins were removed, barrel receivers were drilled and etc. Two 'Kulibins' - the cousins remade the weight-size mock-up weapons into combat arms. Now a theory is being investigated that, first, they delivered some parts from Ukraine, and second, that they sold ready-made weapons there," he said.
The seized items are being examined in order to launch criminal inquiries on the basis of Criminal Code articles regarding 'illegal sale of weapons, their main parts, munitions' and 'illegal production of weapons'; the circumstances of the crimes committed and people involved in them are being investigated, he also said.
Interfax has no comments on this matter available from official sources.