MOSCOW. Jan 30 (Interfax) - The Federal Security Service (FSB) has busted a criminal group that was converting hunting guns into combat weapons in the Kaluga region, a representative of the FSB public relations center told Interfax on Thursday.
"The FSB, acting in collaboration with the Russian National Guard's Main Directorate for Licensing and Certification, has stopped the activity of a criminal group comprising the heads and employees of LLC Paritet-SV sports shooting club, who opened a club workshop to illegally convert hunting guns and replica weapons into combat weapons cable of automatic fire," the representative said.
More than 1,200 Russian and foreign firearms were seized from a warehouse, the shooting range, and the premises of the shooting club in the town of Yukhnov in the Kaluga region, he said.
"The activity of an illegal workshop, which was equipped with special hardware for modernizing weapons, has been stopped," the representative said.
The weapons seized were certified as "hunting carbines and replicas with restored combat characteristics," he said.
The FSB seized machineguns, automatic weapons, various Kalashnikov rifle modifications, sniper rifles and carbines, handguns, revolvers, and large quantities of cartridges of various calibers, the representative said.
The weapons seized were taken to forensic laboratories. A procedural decision will be made on the basis of forensic test results.