“We could have all gone flying, this could have been a tragedy.” Ana María, a neighbor of the small town of Iznatoraf (905 inhabitants, Jaén), still cannot overcome her astonishment when remembering the dawn of a cold day at the end of October, when the street where she lives was filled with civil guards in an operation against the trafficking and storage of weapons of war and explosives. Three neighbors of Ana María (the couple and her son) were arrested shortly after, after agents from the GRS Citizen Security groups found numerous ammunition and weapons in the basement of their home on Rincón Street.
Two months after that operation, the Civil Guard has dismantled a criminal plot dedicated to the illicit manufacture and trafficking of weapons and ammunition in five municipalities in the province of Jaén, which has resulted in the arrest of eight residents and the indictment. of two more people. The Court of First Instance and Instruction Number 2 of Villacarrillo (Jaén) has ordered the imprisonment of three of those eight detainees for the crimes of depositing weapons of war, depositing ammunition, illicit possession of weapons, trafficking in weapons and ammunition and explosives warehouse. The seized material includes a hand grenade, 17,200 metal cartridges of different calibers (including war ammunition), numerous shells and projectiles for the illegal manufacture of ammunition, three firearm barrels and numerous pistols and rifles. They also found 8,000 euros in cash that allegedly came from the sale of that material.
Among those imprisoned are the father and son who were detained in Iznatoraf to the astonishment and perplexity of the residents of this town that preserves an Arab layout in its narrow and labyrinthine streets. “We still haven't lost our fear just by thinking about the amount of weapons and explosives they had stored in the house,” says another neighbor of the detained family who prefers to remain silent about her identity.
Iznatoraf was the epicenter of this network dismantled by the Civil Guard. His father and son are from here and had run a gun shop in the neighboring town of Úbeda, but it was closed a year ago for lack of a license. In that armory the Civil Guard seized numerous materials, most of them weapons belonging to clients who had taken them there to be repaired. It was the closure of that location that triggered the start of the operation. In April of this year, investigators learned that weapons were being sold from the closed gun shop and began investigations.
The main accused of this network would be the son of the couple detained in Iznatoraf, who was very frequent on social networks, where he exhibited his skill in handling all types of weapons. He has also appeared in historical reenactments, dressed for the occasion and displaying different weapons of the time.
The wife and mother of the two detainees, Juana Méndez, also remains under investigation for “being aware of the activities and collaborating within the plot,” according to the judge. Méndez, who was a socialist councilor during the previous municipal mandate, has denied that the money that the Civil Guard took from her house was related to the sale of weapons and ammunition. “We are normal people, without ostentation, with normal cars and my son working in the field. If he lived off the sale of weapons, do you think he would be working in the fields? ”He declared to the local media. Jaen today. Despite his words, other residents of Iznatoraf have highlighted to this newspaper the ostentation that the family had been making, bragging about having bought an apartment in an area of the Mediterranean.
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In the operation, the Civil Guard has dismantled two clandestine workshops for the modification of weapons and the manufacture of metal cartridges thanks to the eight entries and home searches that were carried out in the towns of Iznatoraf, Villanueva del Arzobispo, Linares, Úbeda and Villacarrillo.
As reported by the Civil Guard, the detainees illegally possessed large quantities of ammunition (calibers of short weapons and weapons of war, such as caliber 7.62 and 5.56), which they subsequently sold illegally along with the weapons and weapons. other accessories.
Weapons of war and prohibited
In total, the following weapons and effects were seized: A submachine gun (weapon of war), a pistol with a nock (prohibited weapon), 16 pistols, nine revolvers and six long weapons (shotguns and rifles), a hand grenade (weapon of war), 17,200 metallic cartridges of different calibers (including war ammunition), three kilos of gunpowder, 3,420 pistons and numerous cases and projectiles for the illegal manufacture of ammunition, five pistols and a detonating revolver, eight silencers, three barrels of weapons of fire and several essential components, 8,000 euros in cash, five mobile phones and a computer, and other documentation
The operation has been developed by the Information Group of the Jaén Civil Guard Command in coordination with the Information Headquarters, and has had the support of the Andalusian Information Section, Cynological Service (weapons detection dogs) as well as the USECIC, Judicial Police, personnel from different units of the Jaén Command, the GEDEX of the Granada Command and the Central Intervention of Weapons and Explosives.
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