Swedish police discovered a container full of automatic weapons, wigs, and police uniforms and believe that the items may belong to members of the far-left extremist movement.
The container was found just outside of the city of Jönköping earlier this week and at first, police suspected that they may have been stockpiled for use in a robbery. Authorities are now investigating whether they were intended for use by radical far-left extremists, Aftonbladet reports.
So far, police have arrested one man in connection with the case, a 40-year-old teacher at a local school who they are investigating for weapons offences and other charges. The principal of the school expressed shock at the arrest.
A second man, also in his 40s, is the subject of a manhunt by Swedish police and both men are suspected of being members of the far-left “autonomous” scene, a group which often overlaps with the far-left extremist Antifa movement.
The man who rented the container to the teacher was initially arrested then let go by police. He said that the 40-year-old had told him he was using the container to store furniture.
“I’m officially not dismissed from the investigation but I do not feel like a suspect. I am innocent and did not know what was in the containers that I hired out,” he said.
The teacher has denied any wrongdoing but because of the possible political nature of the crime, as many of those brought in for questioning were members of the far-left extremist scene, the Swedish security agency Säpo has also been involved in the investigation.
Should the contents of the container be linked to the movement, it would be just the latest discovery of weapons in the hands of members of the far-left.
As recently as March of this year, police in the German city of Thuringia found what was described as a mobile bomb factory along with explosive chemicals in a raid on left-extremists with links to the German far-left political party Die Linke.
Another Antifa weapons cache was uncovered in Rostock last July where investigators found knives, flammable liquids, and various chemicals. The cache was believed to have been stocked ahead of the Hamburg G20 in which Antifa members injured hundreds of police officers and committed over 2,000 crimes, terrorising the city.
The incidents form part of a broader trend of increased radicalisation of Antifa and the far-left across Europe. In April, Antifa members fighting the Turkish government in Northern Syria promised to fight the French state, sabotage infrastructure, and target intelligence officials and police following the eviction of anarchist squatters.
In Germany, Antifa released a “riot tourist” guide encouraging members to attack offices of the anti-mass migration Alternative for Germany, war memorials, and more while blocking a meeting of the populist party in Augsburg later this month.
The website listed in the terror manual also linked to a document called “Prisma” which instructs extremists how to cut down power lines and make remote-detonated bombs.