Former Police Officer in Zurich Was Selling Guns on the Dark Web
Last updated June 23, 2021
- A former police officer from Switzerland who was selling guns on the dark web is now arrested and under investigation.
- The man managed to pocket the guns gradually by manually changing legitimate police firearm orders.
- The individual abused his position and enjoyed the aid of an accomplice in Germany.
A 57-year-old man from Zurich, Switzerland, is under arrest and investigation for allegedly selling firearms on the dark web between 2012 and 2013, as well as for official secrecy law violations. At that time, the man was actually a Police officer, and according to the details that have surfaced, he took advantage of his position to source the weapons without raising many suspicions around him.
More specifically, the now-arrested individual was working for the Zurich canton police and later became the Head of Logistics at the Schwyz cantonal police, a position he held until April 2018. The man was ordering firearms and ammunition for the police and had his superiors sign off these purchase orders, which appeared perfectly legit. Abusing his position, he then changed the ordered items and the quantities by hand, so he got to keep the surplus without his colleagues realizing it.
This way, he got to keep hundreds of weapons and tens of thousands of cartridges, which he decided to sell on the dark web. At the time of his arrest, the Police found and confiscated 80 weapons in his house.
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According to the reports, the preliminary investigation started after they’ve found a purchase order of 180,000 Swiss Francs (approximately $196,400) carried out by the man. Soon, the investigators realized this was only the tip of the iceberg regarding what the former officer has been doing all these years.
So far, the investigators haven’t found anyone else from the Police to be involved as an accomplice, and there’s no sign that the officers who signed the firearm purchase orders knew what was going on. However, there is a German citizen who has received secret/confidential information from the 57-year-old and who helped him forge the documents and carry out the weapon sales on the dark web. It is unclear if that person was arrested, but the German Police are participating in this operation as well.
Where exactly the man sold these firearms was not specified, but there are many marketplaces on the dark web that could have hosted these listings. Interestingly, the investigation was launched in 2018, based on evidence leaked in the “real world,” not the net's virtual realms. Thus, the former officer was caught because he left too many clues behind, which raised questions among the high-ranking officers of the Zurich police.
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