Belarusians steal 40 rifles from a German train to sell on the darknet

Criminals from Belarus stole boxes of rifles from a train in Lower Saxony.

Source. This was reported by the Bild newspaper, cited by DW.

They intended to sell the weapons via the darknet, but their plans were foiled by German police.

Criminals from Belarus stole 40 NATO-style assault rifles from a freight train in Germany and intended to sell them via the darknet, Bild newspaper reported on Friday, 12 April.

As the newspaper found out, the Chinese-made rifles were delivered by sea to the port of Hamburg and loaded onto a freight train bound for a weapons depot in Bavaria on 16 March.

The criminals, who had travelled from Belarus on purpose, took advantage of the train's unguarded position in Lower Saxony and stole boxes of semi-automatic rifles resembling American M16s under the cover of night.

The criminals buried their prey in the ground near the train station and disguised the cache with piles of dog excrement, apparently hoping that no one would check it out of disgust, Bild notes.

However, a specially trained federal police dog was able to locate the cache by smelling the gloves left by the thieves near the crime scene. The boxes with the rifles were found, but the criminals had already disappeared by then – they left Germany immediately after the raid to sell the stolen goods on the darknet, believing that the rifles were still where they were buried.

The police, however, managed to outwit the criminals. They put the empty boxes back in the hideout, covered it up again, and when the thieves returned a few weeks later to retrieve the weapons, they were arrested.

Two Belarusians aged 30 and 45 fell into the trap. They were placed in a pre-trial detention centre, but refused to testify.

It is not known how the Belarusian criminals found out in which train carriage in Germany the rifles were located.

Background. As a reminder, Finland has stated that it is not against Ukraine attacking Russia with its weapons.