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The head of Interpol on Wednesday raised alarms about a possible rise in weapons trafficking after the war in Ukraine ends.
Interpol Secretary General Jurgen Stock told the Anglo-American Press Association that he has “no doubt” illegal arms dealing will increase.
“They will show up, not only in the in the neighbouring region of a conflict zone, but we have experience that these weapons might be trafficked to other continents,” Mr Stock said in Paris.
“We have seen that in the Balkans region. We have seen that in theatres in Africa that, of course, organised crime groups try to exploit this chaotic situation, availability of weapons and even weapons that are used by the military.”
Small weapons are the main concern, he said.
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A Soviet/Russian towed 152mm field gun, called the 2A36 Giatsint-B, is fired by self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic militia on the front line near Avdiivka, Donetsk region. EPA -
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Members of the foreign volunteers unit which fights in the Ukrainian army, in Severodonetsk. Reuters -
A woman looks for her belongings beneath rubble after a strike destroyed three houses in the city of Slovyansk, in the Ukrainian region of Donbas. AFP -
Ukraine fans hold up anti-war signs before a Fifa World Cup qualifier match at Hampden Park, Glasgow. PA -
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Vlada Shcheglova, wife of Ukraine footballer Oleksandr Zinchenko, before the Fifa World Cup qualifier at Hampden Park in Glasgow. PA -
A damaged building in the town of Rubizhne. Reuters -
A man reads a book as he sits on a fragment of a rocket at an exhibition in Kyiv featuring Russian equipment that was damaged or destroyed during the conflict. AFP -
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People sit next to a damaged apartment building in Irpin, near Kyiv. AFP -
Evgeny, 31, stands in his damaged apartment in the Saltivka district, northern Kharkiv. AFP -
Ukrainian workers repair a flat damaged by shelling in the southern city of Odesa. EPA -
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The burnt wreckage of a Ukrainian tank, in Kolychivka. Getty Images -
A grave in front of destroyed residential buildings in Mariupol. AFP -
Residents sit outside a destroyed apartment building in Mariupol. AFP -
A cat walks past destroyed residential buildings in Mariupol. AFP -
Local artists draw on fragments of exploded rockets in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. EPA
Mr Stock encouraged Interpol’s 195 member countries to “intensively use available databases that can help trace and track weapons, for instance those stolen in another country".
“No country in our region can deal with it in isolation because the criminals I’m talking about are operating globally,” he said.
Mr Stock also said Ukraine had asked Interpol for assistance in tracking down missing people and victims using its extensive databases.
Interpol, based in Lyon, France, does not carry out investigations but provides training for police and customs officers to, for instance, identify trafficking routes, he said.
