Trafficking in illicit firearms for criminal purposes within the European union

European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice

Volumn 15, Issue 3, 2007, Pages 359-381

  Spapens, Toine ^a  

^a TILBURG UNIVERSITY   (Netherlands)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 35748964143     PISSN: 09289569     EISSN: 15718174     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1163/092895607X231206     Document Type: Article

References (65)

1. Davis, C. Hirst and B. Mariani, Organised Crime, Corruption and Illicit Arms Trafficking in an Enlarged EU (London 2001).
2. O. Greene, 'Examining International Responses to Illicit Arms Trafficking', 33 Crime, Law & Social Change (2000) pp. 151-190, p. 171. It concerns, for example, the EU Programme for Combating and Preventing Illicit Trafficking in Conventional Arms (1997) and the EU Code of Conduct on Arms Exports (1998), Joint Action on the European Union's Contribution to Combating the Destabilising Accumulation and Spread of Small Arms and Light Weapons (1998).
3. D. Sagramoso, The Proliferation of Illegal Small Arms and Light Weapons in and around the European Union (2001), Centre for Defence Studies, Kings College, University of London.
4. In the United Kingdom, a restrictive weapons law already went into force in 1997 after sixteen children and a teacher were shot dead in a school in Dunblane in Scotland. Germany tightened its law after a comparable event in April 2002 in Erfurt, where a student killed a teacher and two fellow students. In Belgium, a new weapons law was quickly passed in 2006 after a young man, at random, shot dead a child of two-and-a-half years old and her baby-sitter in Antwerp.
5. Private individuals can obtain a license for a lethal barrelled firearm, including hunting rifles, only under strict conditions. Moreover, the possession of non-lethal firearms and even imitation weapons is also forbidden.
6. Europol, EU Organised Crime Threat Assessment (The Hague 2006) p. 25.
7. A.C. Spapens and M.Y. Bruinsma, De smokkel van illegale handvuurwapens vanuit voormalige Oostbloklanden naar Nederland (Tilburg 2002a), IVA;
8. A.C. Spapens and M.Y. Bruinsma, Vuurwapens gezockt: vuurwapengebruik, -bezit en -handel in Nederland 1998-2000 (Tilburg 2002b), IVA;
9. N. Maalsté, P. Nijmeijer and M. Scholtes, De vuurwapengedetineerde aan het woord, (The Hague 2002), ES&E;
10. A.C. Spapens and M.Y. Bruinsma, Illegale vuurwapens in Nederland: smokkel en handel (Zeist 2004), Politiewetenschap no. 26 Uitgeverij Kerckebosch;
11. M. Bruinsma and J. Moors, Illegale vuurwapens: gebruik, bezit en handel in Nederland 2001-2003 (Tilburg 2005), IVA.
12. Centre for Defence Studies, Illegal Firearms in the United Kingdom (2001), Working Paper 3;
13. G. Hales, C. Lewis and D. Silverstone, Gun Crime: the Market in and Use of Illegal Firearms (London 2006), Home Office Research Study 298, Home Office, as well as Sagramoso, 2001.
14. A.C. Spapens, Illegal firearms in a European perspective, An Overview of the Problems (Zoetermeer 2003), Working Group Dutch Presidency EU 2004, National Firearms Platform.
15. Small Arms Survey, 2001.
16. The category of small arms includes by definition of the United Nations: revolvers and self-loading pistols, rifles and carbines, assault rifles, sub-machine guns and light machine guns. Light weapons include heavy machine guns, hand-held under-barrel and mounted grenade launchers, portable anti-tank and anti-aircraft guns, recoilless rifles, portable launchers of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles and mortars of calibres less than 100mm.
17. J. Boutwell and M. Klare, A Scourge of Small Arms, Scientific American, June 2000.
18. U. Sieber and M. Bögel, Logistik der Organisierten Kriminalität, (Wiesbaden 1993).
19. See, for example, W. Huisman, H. Huikeshoven, H. van de Bunt, J. Van Wijk, A. Meijer, G. Boelens, M. Jagt and J. Spijkerman, De zwakste schakel (2003) VU Amsterdam/Politie Amsterdam-Amstelland;
20. A. Spapens and C. Fijnaut, Criminaliteit en rechtshandhaving in de Euregio Maas-Rijn, Vol. 1 (Antwerp/Oxford 2005);
21. A. Spapens, Interactie tussen criminaliteit en opsporing, de gevolgen van opsporingsactiviteiten voor de organisatie en afscherming van xtc-productie en -handel in Nederland (Antwerp/Oxford 2006).
22. K. Krause, Small Arms and Light Weapons: Proliferation Processes and Policy Options (Canada 2000), Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, via: 〈http://www.smallarmssurvey.org〉, p. 18.
23. R. Kuijper and S. van der Leest, Vuurwapencriminaliteit op basis van het Vuurwapendatasysteem in 2001 (Zoetermeer 2002), Korps Landelijke Politiediensten, Landelijk Bureau Wapens en Munitie, p. 11.
24. Korps Landelijke Politiediensten, Recherche-informatie vuurwapens (June 2000), katern no. 15.
25. Ibid. Alongside die ordinary UZI size, mini- and microversions are also made. The Croatian variant was not the same of either of these versions.
26. A.C. Spapens and M.Y. Bruinsma, Vuurwapens gezocht: vuurwapengebruik, -bezit en -handel in Nederland 1998-2000 (Tilburg 2002b).
27. Korps Landelijke Politiediensten (KLPD), De aard en omvang van vuurwapencriminaltiteit in Nederland, periode 1991-1995 (Zoetermeer 1997).
28. Korps Landelijke Politiediensten, Recherche-informatie vuurwapens (June 2000), katern no. 15.
29. A.C. Spapens and M.Y. Bruinsma, De smokkel van illegale handvuurwapens vanuit voormalige Oostbloklanden naar Nederland (Tilburg 2002a), IVA.
30. Information provided by the Bundeskriminalamt during the European Firearms Experts Meeting, Noordwijk, 7 and 8 December 2004.
31. Korps Landelijke Politiediensten (KLPD), De aard en omvang van vuurwapencriminaltiteit in Nederland, periode 1991-1995 (Zoetermeer 1997).
32. M. Bruinsma and H. Moors, op. cit., p. 90.
33. G. Hales, C. Lewis and D. Silverstone, op. cit., p. 11.
34. Information provided by staff of the Bundeskriminalamt during the European Firearms Experts Meeting, Noordwijk, 7 and 8 December 2004.
35. A.C. Spapens and M.Y. Bruinsma, Illegale vuurwapens in Nederland: smokkel en handel (Zeist 2004), Politiewetenschap no. 26 Uitgeverij Kerckebosch, pp. 71-73.
36. D. Sagramoso, op. cit., p. 17.
37. A.C. Spapens and M.Y. Bruinsma, op. cit., p. 68, p. 105.
38. A.C. Spapens and M.Y. Bruinsma, op. cit., p. 91.
39. A.C. Spapens and M.Y. Bruinsma, op. cit., pp. 73-74.
40. This same evolution is apparent in the smuggling of narcotics from the Netherlands to other EU countries on the continent; See, for example, A.C. Spapens and C. Fijnaut, 2005, L. Paoli, 'The Paradoxes of Organised Crime', 37 Crime, Law & Social Change, (2002) p. 51-97.
41. A.C. Spapens and M.Y. Bruinsma, op. cit., p. 86.
42. NCIS, UK Threat Assessment 2002 (London), Home Office.
43. W. Huisman et al., op. cit., p. 144.
44. A.C. Spapens and M.Y. Bruinsma, Vuurwapens gezocht: vuurwapengebruik, -bezit en -handel in Nederland 1998-2000 (Tilburg 2002b), IVA, pp . 80-84.
45. A.C. Spapens and M.Y. Bruinsma, op. cit., pp. 113-121,
46. Bruinsma and Moors, op. cit., p. 27.
47. A.C. Spapens and M.Y. Bruinsma, op. cit., pp. 148-149.
48. See, for example, P. Lock, Pervasive Illicit Small Arms Availability: a Global Threat, HEUNI Paper no. 14 (Helsinki 1999).
49. A.C. Spapens and M.Y. Bruinsma, Illegale vuurwapens in Nederland: smokkel en handel (Zeist 2004), Politiewetenschap no. 26 Uitgeverij Kerckebosch, p. 49.
50. A.C. Spapens and M.Y. Bruinsma, op. cit., p. 105.
51. COM (1987) 383 def.
52. COM (2000) 837 def.
53. K. Krause, op. cit., p. 12.
54. COM (2000) 837 def: p. 12
55. Second Chamber, Vergaderjaar 1993-1994, 23028, no. 10: p. 2.
56. COM (2000) 837 def.
57. COM (2006) 93 def.
58. Council of the European Union, Final Report on the Arrow Route Policing Project (Brussels 30 May 2001) 9178/01.
59. Korps Landelijke Politiediensten (Zoetermeer 2001), Operation Arrow, Vuurwapencriminaliteit, Dienst NRI, p. 8.
60. Council of the European Union, op. cit.
61. Council of the European Union, op. cit.
62. Korps Landelijke Politiediensten, op. cit.
63. Second Annual Report on the implementation of the EU Joint Action of 12 July 2002 on the European Union's contribution to combating the destabilising accumulation and spread of small arms and light weapons (2002/589/CFSP) and repealing Joint Action 1999/34/CFSP and the EU Programme on illicit trafficking in conventional arms of June 1997.
64. Information provided by Ms. L. Martensson during the European Firearms Experts Meeting, Noordwijk, 7 and 8 December 2004.
65. Centre for Defence Studies, op. cit.