Le Figaro Marseille
On the table in the court library, the weapons presented to the press, made entirely of plastic, look like toys, but in reality they are not fun.
This Monday, the gendarmes and the public prosecutor of Marseille, Nicolas Bessone, announced the dismantling of a vast international network of arms sales and manufacturing using 3D printers.
A first in France which does not fail to worry the authorities, according to the public prosecutor's own admission.
What is it about ?
More than a year ago, during a patrol on the dark web, gendarmes specializing in cybercrime came across an ad on Telegram loops which caught their attention.
People are promising the sale of weapons made using 3D printers, for a price ranging between 1000 and 1500 euros, much less than the price charged for conventional weapons.
These weapons also have the advantage of being more difficult to trace because they lack any marking.
Suspects domiciled in Roquebrune-sur-Argens, in the Var, were quickly identified, leading first to the opening of an investigation under the supervision of the Draguignan public prosecutor's office.
But the gendarmes at the center for the fight against digital crime understand that they are dealing with a much larger network, of national and international scope, and the Jirs of Marseille is seized of the case.
“The investigations will allow us to determine that there are people who manufacture these weapons with 3D printers, who market them and who deliver them
,” reports Nicolas Bessone.
More precisely, some people manufactured and then delivered the weapons in spare parts in packages.
“This is the real uberization of arms trafficking,”
notes the public prosecutor of Marseille
.
This is why we need to pay special attention to it.
They use Vinted-type delivery processes and with payments that will be made in cryptocurrency.”
Other people offered to sell the manufacturing process on the darkweb to customers
“who were embarking on a more artisanal way of manufacturing weapons
,” reports Nicolas Bessone.
Equipped with these instructions, these customers made their weapons using 3D printers costing 150 euros and polymer threads, a kind of plastic whose price does not exceed ten euros.
At the end of their investigations, eight 3D printers were seized, as well as seven weapons manufactured using 3D printing and 24 conventional weapons.
“To my knowledge, this is a first in France
,” notes the public prosecutor of Marseille.
Also read Trafficking, blackmail, espionage: cyber-judges against the dark web
What type of weapons were made?
The weapons manufactured were 9mm or 22mm weapons.
“One of the weapons sold is a 9mm weapon and was called Fuck gun control 9mm, also known as FGCA,”
reports Nicolas Bessone.
They also had .22 Long Rifles on sale.”
“The first weapons manufactured with 3D printing were initially not very safe, both in terms of precision and in terms of the shooter,”
recalls Nicolas Bessone.
It could explode in your hands.”
But this is no longer the case today, according to these investigations.
“The quality of the weapons is still good, even very good,”
worries Colonel Hervé Petry, head of the national cyber unit within the gendarmerie.
For the purposes of the investigation, we produced parts and a weapon ourselves.
And we were able to measure the full quality of these weapons, close to 95% of the original weapons.”
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Who are the suspects?
Investigators arrested 14 people at the beginning of last week.
In total, nearly 300 gendarmes were mobilized in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Brittany, Midi-Pyrénées, the Grand Est region and Île de France.
The operation notably required the mobilization of the GIGN given its dangerous nature.
Twelve of his suspects were presented to justice.
They are accused of “unauthorized possession in assembly of weapons and ammunition of category B weapons”, “manufacture or trade without authorization of war material, weapons and ammunition of category A and B”, “sale weapons without marking”, “distance purchase or sale of weapons, ammunition and their delivery outside an authorized premises”.
Six of them were imprisoned and five were placed under judicial supervision, including one who is in pre-trial detention at his home.
They are aged between 18 and
“around thirty years”
, according to Nicolas Bessone.
“There are people known for a number of offenses and other people who have no criminal record.”
“Considered as the leader of this organization and this traffic in this network”,
a man initially domiciled in Roquebrune-sur-Argens is the subject of an international arrest warrant since he has now established himself in Belgium.
Known for drug-related offenses, this 26-year-old suspect is, like certain other suspects, part of the
“libertarian movement”
according to Nicolas Bessone.
Coming from an ideology imported from the United States, this so-called
“pro weapons”
movement corresponds to the
“desire to disseminate to as many people as possible in a spirit of struggle and defense against the State considered totalitarian and oppressive”
, as recalled Colonel Hervé Petry.
“They share a very radical ideology, whether far right, far left or radical environmentalists
,” lists the colonel.
Other suspects are gun collectors.
A final category is linked to drug trafficking, seeing this as a new way to obtain weapons.
“For the record, even if no link is made with our case, I remind you that for the attempted settling of scores which took place on rue de la Loge in the 2nd arrondissement of Marseille on the night of June 10 to 11, 2023, the murder weapon had been found and it was a weapon made using a 3D printer
,” worries Nicolas Bessone.