Greek government seizes ship laden with firearms

[jimpeel]

The Greek customs inspectors found 5,000 shotguns, some tactical and some sporting, hidden in a container bound for Libya.

SOURCE

Greek authorities have discovered a gargantuan cache of weapons aboard a cargo ship headed to an Islamist controlled area of Libya.

The coastguard said a search of only the first two of the 14 containers carried by the Bolivian vessel Haddad 1 had revealed almost 500,000 rounds of ammunition and 5,000 shotguns, of a type similar to that used by police, with no accompanying documentation.

VIDEO HERE

 

[Aguila Blanca]

Interesting that a Bolivian-flagged ship would be named Haddad. That's a middle eastern name, not Spanish.

 

[gyvel]

Interesting that a Bolivian-flagged ship would be named Haddad. That's a middle eastern name, not Spanish.

Even stranger since Bolivia is landlocked.

 

[JohnKSa]

Pretty common for a ship's registration location to be chosen based on taxes/cost and not on the location of the actual owner/operator.

Here's an explanation of why so many ships are registered in Liberia--the 2nd most common "flag of convenience".
http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2001/06/11/304620/index.htm

Here's some information on common flags of convenience.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_flags_of_convenience

At the time that wiki article was updated, there were 5 foreign vessels registered in Brazil, 4 of them Syrian.

 

[Aguila Blanca]

At the time that wiki article was updated, there were 5 foreign vessels registered in Brazil Bolivia, 4 of them Syrian.

Fixed it for you.

 

[Smokey Joe]

OK, well...

My question would be, what is the Greek government going to do with all those shotguns?

Selling them to the sporting market would get them a bunch more $$ than crushing them up and selling them as scrap metal--I understand that the Greek government is in need of as much $$ as they can lay their hands on...Anybody got any info?

 

[jimpeel]

Watching the video it is obvious that not all of the shotguns are tactical. There were many which were of the standard sporting variety. I would assume they would sell those to the sporting community while selling or giving the rest to the government market.

 

[carguychris]

There were many [shotguns] which were of the standard sporting variety. I would assume they would sell those to the sporting community while selling or giving the rest to the government market.

The presence of these guns seems to fly in the face of the Turkish government's assertion in the original article that "....the weapons were destined for the Sudanese police force, [and] the shipment was fully documented."

Perhaps certain Sudanese cops (or Libyan insurgents) have an affinity for breaking clays in their spare time.