MOSCOW. Sept 28 (Interfax) - Law enforcement agencies dismantled the operations of 29 back-street arms-making workshops in several regions of Russia in September, detaining several suspects, the press center for the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said.
"The Federal Security Service together with the Interior Ministry and the Russian Guard dismantled the criminal activities of 48 residents from 18 regions involved in restoring the combat properties of civilian weapons in clandestine workshops, selling them and smuggling ordnance into Russia," the press center said in a statement shared with Interfax on Tuesday.
Twenty-nine clandestine workshops engaged in upgrading weapons and making munitions were busted and 149 firearms of Russian and foreign origin were seized, it said.
"Search and investigative operations were carried out at the places of residence of the clandestine arms makers in Moscow, the republics of Dagestan, Ingushetia, Mordovia, North Ossetia-Alania and Udmurtia, the Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk and Khabarovsk Territories, the Vladimir, Kemerovo, Lipetsk, Novosibirsk, Oryol, Penza, Rostov, Smolensk, and Tver regions in September 2021," the press center said.
As a result, law enforcement officers seized seven automatic weapons (AK-74, AKS-74U and AK-103), nine submachine guns (Kedr, PPS, PPSh, MR-40), 67 carbines, rifles and guns (M-16, Mauser, Vepr, Mosin, SKS, Tigr, TOZ, SVT-40, Izh, Saiga, and Belka), 66 pistols and revolvers (Glock, Colt, Grand Power, Walther, APS, Izh-71, PM, Rec, Stalker, Suor, Nagant, Strazh, Groza, and Star), over 27 kilograms of explosives (TNT and powder), six hand grenades (F-1, RGD-5), 24 fuses and detonators, 20 meters of Bickford fuse, and more than 12,000 cartridges of various calibers, it said.