Catching up with police seizures from mid-February onward, March’s look into improvised and modified firearms circulating the criminal underworld begins.

Firstly it appears that automatic conversion switches have been showing up fitted to Glock pistols seized in Puerto Rico, following recent publicity in the US.  The contraband below was seized last month in San Juan.

 

Below: Two ‘KG9’ submachine guns, a locally-made copy of the Interdynamic MP-9 / TEC-9 displayed in a seizure of weapons in northern Mindanao last month along with what are almost definitely indigenous 1911 copies. Illegal gunsmiths in the Philippines are the cream of the crop and are able to supply conventional guns of near factory quality to meet local demand.

 

Below: A 12 gauge zip gun which was seized in Sacramento, California last month:

 

Police in South Australia seized this zip gun made built into a small torch on February 14.

 

The zip gun below was also seized by South Australian police last week:

 

A workshop being used to adapt blank firing and deactivated weapons was uncovered by police in the Russian Republic of Ingushetia on February 14th. Police in Ukraine also carried out raids on several illicit workshops during February. These submachine guns were apparently being mailed to clients met through ‘specialized’ forums.

 

The pistol below was seized in the Indian city of Bhubaneswar and was used in the commission of brown sugar peddling.

Two brown sugar peddlers arrested with pistol in Cuttack.

Bhubaneswar, Feb 29: The Special Task Force (STF) of Crime Branch today arrested two persons for brown sugar peddling and seized brown sugar weighing 56 grams.

Police said that acting on a tip-off, they intercepted a car in Tangi of Cuttack district and seized the contraband. Police have also seized a 9mm pistol and four rounds of ammunition from the accused.

“A case in this connection has been lodged with Tangi police station. The accused are being further interrogated to ascertain the source of procurement of the firearm and brown sugar as well. We are also verifying their antecedents,” said a police official. (prameyanews)

 

Below are various zip guns seized by police in Brazil last month:

 

More unusual, a homemade .380 semi-automatic pistol used by two minors to perform robberies in the northern state of Para.

 

A square tubing submachine gun seized on the 20th last month:

 

The locally craft made .50 cal rifle pictured above an M14 was seized after a firefight between the army and Islamist BIFF rebels in Maguindanao, Philippines on Tuesday. Three of the rebels were killed along with one soldier.