An arsenal of weapons including an anti-tank rocket launcher with a rocket, a Kalashnikov-type rifle, and ammunition were seized by police near Marseille, France, on Monday.
The find came through what has been described as a routine traffic stop at a police roadblock in Port-de-Bouc, a western suburb of the southern French port city. After pulling over a vehicle, a couple in their twenties were found along with a selection of weapons including a military rocket launcher which was armed ready with a rocket, plus a Kalashnikov rifle and ammunition for it.
Both of the individuals inside the vehicle were arrested. The 25-year-old male driver is known to the authorities, reports L’Express, who states he has a previous record for “petty offences” and is a “delinquent”, but has no known links to jihadism.
The man is also known to police for domestic violence against his partner, who he was arrested with, and was under an order to not be in her company.
The haul came just days after the Marseille attack in which a suspected jihadist killed two young women outside a train station. Breitbart London reported on the identity of the killer after it was revealed by French authorities that 29-year-old illegal Tunisian migrant Ahmed Hanachi could have been deported from France but was not.
The man had been arrested around a dozen times for petty crimes and used a number of aliases to elude the police and was held by police for shoplifting the day before the attack — but was released only to go on and kill hours later.
Europe’s open borders have made the task of smuggling firearms from south-east Europe, where they can be more easily acquired from former Soviet stocks, to the West, where there is demand from criminal gangs and terrorists, much easier – a point which has been repeatedly picked up upon by anti-open borders campaigners.
Breitbart London reported after the November 2015 Paris attacks when German police intercepted a car being driven west from Montenegro, with Paris programmed into the satnav. Found hidden within the vehicle behind body panels were eight Kalashnikov assault rifles with ammunition, several handguns, two hand grenades, and 200 grams of TNT.