A 26-year-old man in Gotland has been arrested by Swedish police for manufacturing automatic firearms, using a 3D printer to create components.
The suspect was arrested after turning himself in back in January, reporting to police in Visby that he had been manufacturing and selling weapons that he had largely created with a 3D printer, and claimed he wanted help police.
Shantu Wahlgren, the defence lawyer for the man, told broadcaster SVT, “It was he who reported himself and took the 3D-printed weapon… to the police station.”
The 26-year-old now faces aggravated weapons charges that claim he manufactured and possessed a “fully automatic 3D-printed firearm” and also 216 rounds of ammunition.
Prosecutor Mats Whilborg commented on the ongoing prosecution saying, “The fact that fully lethal weapons can be manufactured in this way is worrying.”
After the 26-year-old turned himself into the police he claimed during interrogation that he produced and sold the weapons in order to finance his gambling addiction and stated that he found the 216 rounds of ammunition from a local shooting range.
Last year, Swedish police warned that 3D-printed weapons were becoming increasingly common in Sweden, with Mikael Högfors of the National Forensic Centre stating authorities deal with at least five or six cases per year.
“If you reduce the smuggling of illegal weapons, the demand will still be there. All the plastic-printed weapons we see today have been made with the intention of being used in criminal contexts,” he said.
The case comes as Sweden saw a record number of fatal shootings last year and has seen a surge of gang violence, including shootings and bombings, in the Stockholm area since the fatal shooting of well-known gangster Mehdi ”Dumle” Sachit on Christmas Day last year.
Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.
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