There is very little evidence that Western weapons supplied to Ukraine end up on the black market in Europe.
This is stated in the report of the analytical center "Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime" (GI-TOC) in Switzerland.
These data refute the Russian narrative, according to which a fifth of the Western weapons supplied to Ukraine allegedly end up on the black market and are resold to terrorists and rebel groups.
"We have found no evidence that Western weapons destined for Ukraine have reached Western Europe, and very little evidence of any Western weapons transactions in Ukraine," said Daniel Brombacher, director of the GI-TOC European Observatory.
"Weapons supplied by the West are in safe hands," he added.
The organization's analysis is based on darknet monitoring and interviews with representatives of EU law enforcement and the criminal world, focusing on the illegal markets of France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden.
The report also undermines the suggestion that NATO military equipment is being supplied to European criminals.
The Spanish Civil Guard reported in May that hashish smugglers had fired on police with US- and European-made rifles, and that NATO-standard ammunition had been found in previous raids. El Español claimed that Latin American drug cartels send their representatives to Kyiv for wholesale purchases. However, GI-TOC did not find any confirmation of such claims, many of which were refuted.
In October 2022, a Finnish organized crime boss told the media that gangs were smuggling Western weapons destined for Ukraine to Finland, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands. This claim was denied by a police spokesman.
A further investigation by GI-TOC found that three Finnish crime lords did travel to Eastern Europe in mid-2022 "with the intention of bringing weapons, but were unable to do so due to a lack of the necessary organizational skills or access to financing," Brombacher said in an interview. publication
According to the report, the Ukrainian government is effective in preventing the illegal use of weapons by military personnel, with only 250 cases recorded in 2022, compared to 191 in 2021, a small number for a country that receives billions of dollars in military aid from the West.
