D Walden 
Finnish customs (TULLI) have released images of a range of firearms seizures conducted over the course of the past 12 months, during which around 100 illegal firearms were intercepted across the country.
According to a press release from Tulli today, the majority of firearms shipments were conducted via post and intercepted by customs at the border, with intended destinations to every corner of Finland.
Several weapons shipments were traced back to a single sender, while others required international cooperation to identify and arrest multiple perpetrators.
Majority of the firearms seized were sold on darknet and then resold for profit.
In one seizure, customs discovered that a young man in Turku had been buying weapons from the dark web and selling them on to anonymous customers at a profit.
In another case, the weapons were traced to a network of twenty cannabis farms across Finland. Pistols, air rifles, and ammunition have all been seized in the past few months, with dozens of people now facing trial across the country.
After a mass shooting at a McDonald’s in Munich in 2016, authorities believed that the gunman probably purchased his weapon on the dark web. That led to stricter gun controls across eruope especially weapons sold on the darknet became the focus of customs investigators.
According to the finnish customs, majority of gun vendors are based in the US and are willing to ship worldwide, with Europe the biggest source of profit.
The most common strategy to send weapons through mail is to disassemble weapons into many different parts that are then sent in different packages.
Some parts are embedded in less conspicuous items like old stereos or printers to avoid detection.
