The Netherlands has a central role in gun-running from eastern Europe, the Telegraaf reports on Thursday.

Large shipments of Slovakian guns arrive in the Netherlands every two weeks and are then distributed to other countries, the paper says. It bases its claims on Europol correspondence between the Netherlands and Slovakia.

The paper describes the correspondence as ‘disturbing’.

In November, police discovered 35 Scorpion sub-machine guns hidden at the bottom of a 110 kilo package being shipped by DHL. They were found, hidden in sand, using x-ray equipment.

Arrests

The seizure led to the arrest of three people in Brabant. One was a Polish national, the other two came from the Noord-Brabant town of Oss. One of the two Dutch nationals was a defence ministry worker, the Telegraaf says.

However, the documents show the Slovakian authorities had asked the Netherlands not to intervene but simply to monitor the shipment so the ring-leaders could be traced, the Telegraaf says.

In January, Croatian officials acting on behalf of Den Bosch police carried out a string of raids on property and made several arrests. The haul included six rocket launchers, Kalashnikov rifles and a machine gun.