Triggering Terror: Illicit Gun Markets and Firearms Acquisition of Terrorist Networks in Europe
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Terror Triggering of Terroristof Networks in Europe Illicit Gun Markets and Firearms Acquisition Triggering Terror Illicit Gun Markets Flemish Peace Institute and Firearms Acquisition Leuvenseweg 86 1000 Brussels of Terrorist Networks tel. + 32 2 552 45 91 [email protected] Nils Duquet Edited by in Europe www.flemishpeaceinstitute.eu The Flemish Peace Institute was founded by decree of the Flemish Parliament as an independent institute for research on peace issues. The peace Institute conducts scientific research, documents relevant information sources, and informs and advises the Flemish Parliament and the public at large on questions of peace. Edited by Co- funded by the Internal Security Fund of the European Union Nils Duquet Triggering Terror Illicit Gun Markets and Firearms Acquisition of Terrorist Networks in Europe Triggering Terror Illicit Gun Markets and Firearms Acquisition of Terrorist Networks in Europe Nils Duquet (ed.) Co- funded by the Internal Security Fund of the European Union Colophon Triggering Terror: Illicit Gun Markets and Firearms Acquisition of Terrorist Networks in Europe ISBN 9789078864905 © Flemish Peace Institute, Brussels, 17 April 2018 Project SAFTE Project SAFTE is an international research project funded by the European Commission. SAFTE stands for ‘Studying the Acquisition of illicit Firearms by Terrorists in Europe’. The research was conducted by an international network of firearms experts. Project coordination: Flemish Peace Institute Project partners: SIPRI and Scuola Universitaria Superiore Sant’Anna. Country study teams: • Flemish Peace Institute • SIPRI • Scuola Universitaria Superiore Sant’Anna. • Arquebus Solutions • Bureau Bruinsma • Small Arms Survey Project SAFTE has received funding from DG Migration and Home Affairs of the European Commission under the call for proposals to support ‘Transnational initiatives to fight trafficking in drugs and firearms’ (HOME/2015/ISFP/AG/TDFX) of the Internal Security Fund (2014-2020). This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the European Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Editor Nils Duquet Language review Alex Potter Layout Karakters, Ghent Print Artoos, Kampenhout Disclaimers While the Flemish Peace Institute has exercised the utmost care in the redaction of this report, it cannot be deemed or held liable for possible mistakes or oversights with regard to completeness. At the same time, the Institute shall not assume any form of liability for the use that a reader may make of this document. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABOUT THE AUTHORS 7 INTRODUCTION 11 The illicit gun market in Belgium: a lethal cocktail of criminal supply and terrorist demand 21 Nils Duquet and Kevin Goris Availability of illegal weapons: connecting the dots Case study of the Republic of Croatia 81 Filip Dragović, Paul James, Krešimir Mamić and Robert Mikac Illegal weapons, gangs and violent extremism in Denmark 123 Lina Grip Lethal legacies: Illicit firearms and terrorism in France 169 Nicolas Florquin and André Desmarais Between organised crime and terrorism: illicit firearms actors and market dynamics in Italy 237 Francesco Strazzari and Francesca Zampagni Terrorist access to firearms in the Netherlands 285 Monique Bruinsma and Toine Spapens Romania: firearms and security at the EU eastern border 327 Roxana Albisteanu, Alexandru Dena and Matthew Lewis 6 From the IRA to ISIS: Exploring terrorist access to the UK’s illicit firearms market 369 Paul Holtom, Paul James and Connor Patmore Illicit firearms circulation and the politics of upheaval in North Africa 435 Francesco Strazzari and Francesca Zampagni Illicit firearms proliferation in the EU periphery: the case of Ukraine 461 Francesco Buscemi, Nils Duquet, Ekaterina Golovko and Eric Woods 7 ABOUT THE AUTHORS ABOUT THE AUTHORS ABOUT Roxana Albisteanu is Director of the Center for Criminal Justice and Security Studies and Public policy expert. She has extensive experience as researcher and project manager in the area of Governance and European policies, having led for over 5 years numerous projects at national and international level. She has worked both in independent think-tanks and the Government, having served as a public policy advisor within the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Romania; she has co- founded the Center for Criminal Justice and Security Studies and is Director of this organisation since 2014. Monique Bruinsma is an independent researcher who has conducted several national studies on illicit firearms possession and trade in the Netherlands. She has her own research company Bureau Bruinsma that is focused on policy oriented social science research in the fields of security and criminality. On the topic of illicit firearms trafficking she frequently collaborates with Toine Spapens and with researchers from the Dutch National police. Together with Ecorys she recently pub- lished a study on the crime-terror nexus with regard to firearms acquisition in the Netherlands for the Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice. Francesco Buscemi is a PhD candidate in Political Science and International Relations at the Pisa-based Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies. He has worked for the Italian Army, the European Union-funded UNDP-operated SEESAC SALW control program in Belgrade, Serbia, and the Flemish Peace Institute. His areas of interest include peace and conflict studies, civil war, arms control, small arms and conflict, non-state armed actors and the character of armed violence. Alexandru Dena is an affiliated expert of the Center for Criminal Justice and Security Studies. He is an experienced firearms specialist, having worked for over 9 years in the Romanian National Police. He is an authorized national firearms foren- sic expert since 2011 and has been a member of the Steering Committee of the ENFSI Firearms Working Group from 2015 until 2017. André Desmarais is a consultant with the Small Arms Survey since august 2016. Previously he worked for 32 years with the French police, as a crime scene examiner and a ballistics expert, from 1983 to 2015. During the years 2003-2007 he was the French technical adviser to the Kabul Police crime laboratory, working with German 8 counterparts. He carried out cooperation missions in several countries such as Algeria and Niger. His last assignment, from 2007-2015, was chief of the ballistics department in Marseille. Now retired, he is also a research fellow with the National scientific research center (CNRS) in Marseille. He graduated from the Cannes- Ecluse Police academy in 1983. Filip Dragović is a consultant with 23 years of work experience at various places in the Croatian Ministry of the Interior (Head of the Border Police, Assistant Minister, General Director) and 6 years of work experience in consultancy services in the countries of South East Europe for various international agencies (UNDP, IOM, GIZ, DCAF, IMG). His areas of expertise are European law, European Union enlargement, border security and migration, SALW, international police cooperation. He has authored several scientific and expert articles related to security issues. Nils Duquet is senior researcher at the Flemish Peace Institute, an independent research institute affiliated to the Flemish Parliament (Belgium). He has been working at the Flemish Peace Institute for 12 years and has authored more than 40 policy-oriented and academic publications on illicit firearms trafficking and gun violence in Europe, domestic gun policies and European arms export controls. He is the scientific coordinator of Project SAFTE. Nicolas Florquin is the research coordinator and a senior researcher at the Small Arms Survey – a Center of excellence at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies – since April 2010. He coordinates projects on armed actors and illicit flows of arms and ammunition in a variety of settings. Prior to joining the Small Arms Survey, he worked from 2006 to 2010 for Geneva Call, an organisation specialis- ing in humanitarian negotiations with non-state armed groups, and also worked for the United Nations Group of Experts on Liberia in 2007. He was previously a researcher at the Small Arms Survey from 2002 to 2006. He holds a Masters of Public Administration from the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California. Ekaterina Golovko is an independent researcher and consultant. She has worked for the Institute for Security Studies, UNESCO and for International Alert. She has conducted extensive research in Italy, Senegal, Guinea and Guinea Bissau. Her research is focused on peace and conflict studies, human rights, education and the countering and prevention of violent extremism. Kevin Goris is researcher at the Flemish Peace Institute, an independent research institute of the Flemish Parliament (Belgium). He holds a Ph.D. in Criminology from the Free University of Brussels. He has worked as policy advisor at the Belgian Public Prosecutor’s Office and assisted a member of Belgian Federal Parliament in 9 the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee investigating the Brussels terrorist attacks of 22 March 2016. At the Flemish Peace Institute, he conducts policy-oriented research on the illicit gun market in Belgium. Lina Grip is a Researcher at the Swedish Prison and Probation Service and an Associate Researcher at the Department of Economic History and International ABOUT THE AUTHORS ABOUT Relations at Stockholm