A Belgian couple has appeared in court in Sweden after they were stopped for a routine customs check and officers found six guns hidden in the woman’s underwear.
Suspects Arzu S. and Gurkan D. were pulled aside for a routine customs check on the Oresund Bridge between Denmark and Sweden in December last year.
The unmarried couple, both in their forties, said they were going to a wedding in Stockholm, but customs officers noticed they were acting nervously.
When asked whose wedding they were going to, they were unable to reply, so the officers decided to carry out a thorough check.
They were astonished when they found two small handguns hidden in Arzu S.’s bra and four more in her knickers.
Incredibly, they also found nine more firearms in a compartment behind the glove box of the couple’s car.
Subsequent analysis of Gurkan D.’s mobile phone showed he had sent numerous messages and photos about arms transactions in the days prior to the check.
Both suspects pleaded guilty to arms smuggling in court in Malmo on 27th March. The man told how he had collected the weapons in Germany to take to Stockholm.
They remain in custody and face four to seven years in jail if convicted. Prosecutors have also asked for their deportation and a 15-year ban on entering Sweden.
In a statement obtained by Newsflash, the Swedish Customs Service said on 27th March: “A Belgian couple in their 40s attempted to smuggle in 15 weapons via the Oresund Bridge. Customs inspectors became suspicious, and when they searched the woman, they found six pistols hidden in her underwear. Nine more weapons were found behind the car’s instrument panel. The weapon seizure is one of the largest made by the Customs Authority. On Monday, the couple was charged with exceptionally serious weapon smuggling.
“In early December last year, when the Customs Authority’s control group conducted a routine check of a couple in a Belgian-registered car, they quickly became suspicious. The driver claimed they were on their way to a wedding in Stockholm, but since the woman had no luggage, they decided to conduct a more in-depth check of both the persons and the car.”
Kristian Johansson, head of the Customs Criminal Investigation Department, said: “During the search, customs inspectors found a total of six weapons that the woman had hidden in her underwear. Two pistols were found in her bra, and four pistols were stuffed into her knickers.”
The Swedish Customs Service said: “During the inspection of the couple’s car, the drug-sniffing dog alerted to the dashboard. Behind the glove compartment, eight pistol grips and a complete pistol were found in a specially designed hiding place. When the car stereo was removed, eight casings with barrels belonging to pistol grips were discovered in the space behind. The couple had a total of 15 live pistols with them.”
Kristian Johansson said: “This is an unusually large weapons seizure at the same time. It feels incredibly good that we have managed to stop these 15 weapons from entering the country and ending up in the hands of criminal gangs.”
The Swedish Customs Service said: “The accused man stated in the Customs Criminal Investigation Department’s interrogation that he picked up the weapons in Germany and that they were to be delivered to a recipient in Stockholm. The woman says she knows nothing about what the weapons were for and that it was her partner who urged her to hide the pistols under her clothes.
“Since the weapon seizure on 1st December, the man and the woman have been detained. They are charged with exceptionally serious weapon smuggling. If they are convicted in Malmo District Court, they could face a minimum of four and a maximum of seven years in prison. The prosecutor also requests that the couple be deported from Sweden after serving their sentence and be banned from returning for 15 years.”
