The stockpiling of Kalashnikovs without serial numbers as strategic reserves poses a security challenge for the EU and NATO.
Russian state-owned arms factories are increasingly supplying unmarked modern weapons to Italy’s mafia groups, including the Calabrian ’Ndrangheta, the Neapolitan Camorra, and the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, according to investigative reporting.
These weapons, including rifles without serial numbers and advanced ammunition, are not only being resold on the black market but are also being stockpiled as strategic reserves, posing a security challenge for the European Union and NATO.
The weapons in question, such as Kalashnikov rifles manufactured in the last decade at facilities like the Tula arms factory, lack serial numbers, making them untraceable.
Investigations suggest possible complicity or tacit approval from Russian state authorities. An unnamed source described Italy as a “weapons warehouse,” with mafia groups amassing arsenals of cutting-edge firearms, including assault and sniper rifles produced between 2010 and 2020.
Analyses by law-enforcement agencies point to “para-state complicity” in the proliferation of unmarked weapons, which could indicate a deliberate effort to destabilize European security.
The absence of serial numbers implies that these weapons are leaving factories with government oversight, a practice that could only occur with high-level authorization.
Italian authorities have identified two primary smuggling routes for these weapons. In Sicily, shipments arrive at ports such as Syracuse, Gioia Tauro, Augusta, and Pozzallo, often concealed in barrels of oil or lubricant to evade detection and prevent oxidation. In March 2022, shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Sicilian authorities seized a cache of modern AK-47 rifles, confirming that these were not relics from old stockpiles but newly manufactured arms.