Interpol warns of flood of illicit arms after Ukraine war

• Many of the weapons sent to Ukraine will end up in the hands of criminals.
• Juergen Stock urges countries to begin scrutinising arms-tracking databases.
• Kyiv’s Western allies have shipped tonnes of military hardware to Ukraine.

Many of the weapons sent to Ukraine will end up in the hands of criminals in Europe and elsewhere, Interpol’s chief warned on Wednesday, urging countries to begin scrutinising arms-tracking databases.

“The high availability of weapons during the current conflict will result in the proliferation in illicit arms in the post-conflict phase,” Interpol Secretary General Juergen Stock said.

This will only strengthen organised crime groups, which have evolved into increasingly global operations capable of exploiting the chaos caused by Russia’s bombardments over the last three months.

“This will come, I have no doubts… Criminals are already now, here as we speak, focussing on that,” Stark told the Anglo-American Press Association in Paris, where he travelled from Interpol’s headquarters in Lyon, southeast France.

Kyiv’s Western allies have shipped tonnes of military hardware to Ukraine as it tries to fend off Russian forces that have already seized swathes of territory in the east and south.

Read more: Inflation and the Ukraine war have slowed India’s economic growth to a one-year low.

US President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that Washington would now send “more advanced rocket systems and munitions,” after providing or pledging thousands of assault rifles as well as anti-tank rockets.

“Even weapons that are used by the military, heavy weapons, will be available on the criminal market,” Stock warned.

“We are already encouraging member countries, we have a database on sharing information on weapons, to use these databases because no region or country can deal with it in isolation,” he said.

“The criminals I’m talking about are operating globally, so these weapons will be exchanged across continents.”

The Ukraine conflict, according to Stock, has also resulted in an increase in “large-scale fertiliser thefts as well as increased counterfeit agro-chemicals, as these commodities have become increasingly valuable.”

“The increase in fuel prices has also resulted in a rise in fuel thefts in Europe and other regions,” he said.

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