MOSCOW. Oct 20 (Interfax) - One hundred and nineteen people involved in illegally producing and remodeling weapons were identified in 38 regions of Russia in August and September, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB)'s public relations center said on Friday.
"The Russian Federal Security Service, interacting with the Russian Interior Ministry and the Russian National Guard, has stopped the illegal activity of 119 residents of 38 regions of the country involved in the illegal possession and distribution of weapons," the FSB said.
Forty two illegal workshops upgrading weapons and making ammunition were shut down, it said.
The FSB operation was conducted in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sevastopol, the republics of Altai, Dagestan, Crimea, Karelia, Mordovia, North Ossetia-Alania, Tatarstan and Kabardino-Balkaria, and the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics in August-September.
It was also carried out in Altai, Krasnoyarsk and Primorye Territories, the Amur, Arkhangelsk, Belgorod, Volgograd, Zaporozhye, Irkutsk, Kaliningrad, Kaluga, Kemerovo, Kirov, Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Orenburg, Pskov, Rostov, Ryazan, Sverdlovsk, Saratov, Smolensk, Tomsk, Ulyanovsk and Chelyabinsk regions, and the Jewish Autonomous Region.
The FSB reported seizing 352 Russian- and foreign-made weapons. These include 42 grenade launchers (M72LAW, RPG-22, RPG-7V, RPG-18, RPG-75M, Panzerfaust, SPG-9, and GP-25), six machine guns (PK, SG-43 and Browning), 67 automatic rifles (AKM, AK-12, AK-74, AK-102, AK-103, AK-74S, AKS-74U, AKMS), 12 submachine guns (Borz, Vityaz, SA-26, PPSh, Uzi, RAK and VZ-26), 105 rifles, carbines and guns (Mosin, Mauser, SVT, SKS, Tigr, KO-44, Vepr, Baikal, VPO-223, DP-O, Izh, MA, Saiga, TOZ, TOZ-17, TOZ-16), and 120 pistols and revolvers (APS, PM, PYa, TT, Aseberg, Beretta, CZ-75, Glock, Mauser, Luger, Walther, Zoraki, TOZ-35M, Bulldog, Nagant and RS-31).
It also seized 607 grenades, shells and mines of various modifications, 33 kilograms of explosives (gunpowder, TNT), and 138,000 rounds.