Gun linked to Paris Attack came through South Florida dealer
One of the guns linked to Islamic militants in the Paris attacks that killed 130 people was exported to the United States in 2013, the head of a Serbian arms factory said Thursday.
Milojko Brzakovic of the Zastava arms factory told The Associated Press that the M92 semi-automatic pistol’s serial number matched one his company delivered to an American online arms dealer in May 2013. It was not clear how the gun got back to Europe.
At least seven of the weapons used or discovered after the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris have been identified as being produced by the Serbian factory located in Kragujevac, in central Serbia. Most were manufactured before Yugoslavia broke up in a civil war in the 1990s and most of those are modified versions of the Soviet AK-47, or Kalashnikov.
Brzakovic said all the guns were delivered legally but could have later found their way into illegal channels.
“One was delivered to Bosnia in 1983, one to Skopje, Macedonia in December 1987, one to Golubici, near Knin (Croatia) in 1988, one to Zagreb (Croatia) 1987,” he said.
He said the M92 pistol “is a semi-automatic weapon, a hunting and sporting weapon … it cannot fire barrage fire, only single shots … which are legal in America.”
He said it was exported to an online arms seller in the United States, the Florida-based Century Arms, to which his factory exports up to 25,000 hunting and sports guns every year. He said the gun was delivered as a semi-automatic, but he did not know whether someone turned it into an automatic after delivery. The so-called “shortened Kalashnikov” is listed by U.S. arms dealers as selling for about $460 apiece.
In a video posted online in December 2013, Century Arms advertised they were selling the AK-style pistol PAP M92, “a brand new firearm from the Zastava factory in Serbia” and demonstrated its attributes.
The AP left messages seeking comment on the gun with Century Arms, the FBI and another U.S. government agency, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Brzakovic insisted that all arms exports from Serbia are under strict government control.
“We submit a request to our government to give consent and authorize the export. Until we receive that, we make no contract. Once we get a permission to export, we make a contract and arrange the dynamics,” he said.
A web of rules and a large U.S. bureaucracy oversee the legal import and export of weapons like the Serbian M92 semi-automatic pistol.
American government approval is required to import firearms into the U.S.
To legally ship firearms back out, the individual or company would have to be registered with the State Department, which controls items covered by the U.S. Munitions List. An export request is submitted to State and a decision to grant the request is based on a variety of factors, including the type of weapon and its eventual destination.
Individual weapons are not tracked by serial numbers unless a single weapon is being exported, according to the State Department. The U.S. does not make publicly available the names of licensed weapons exporters as that information is considered proprietary.
Brzakovic said it would be wrong to accuse Zastava of selling weapons to terrorists.
“Here’s where the weapons ended, there’s the data. Zastava cannot be blamed for where it went afterward,” Brzakovic said.
But he agreed that an illicit gun deal could have taken place even after arms were delivered legally.
“Wherever there are wars, there are bigger possibilities for abuse and to hide the channels for guns. They end up where they shouldn’t,” he said, adding: “We have a data base in the factory for the last 50 years, we know where a gun has been delivered.”
***
Zastava Arms (Serbian Cyrillic: Застава oружје) is a Serbian manufacturer of firearms and artillery, based in Kragujevac, Serbia. It was founded in 1853 when it cast its first cannons. It is the leading producer of firearms in Serbia and is a large contributor to the local defense industry. Zastava Arms produces and exports a wide variety of products to over forty countries.
Zastava Arms was heavily damaged during World War II. When Kragujevac was liberated in October 21, 1944, the weapons factory was put back into working order within months and production began shortly after, with the 9mm M 1944 B2 submachine gun developed during the same year. The next postwar production rifle was the 7.92×57mm Mauser Model 1948 on the basis of Model 24. The production of air rifles and sporting rifles on the basis of rifle M48 started in 1953. In 1954 the Zastava started the production of shotguns and small bore rifles, as well as machine gun 7,9 mm M42 ¨Sarac¨. Batch production of semi-automatic rifle PAP M59 7.62×39mm started in 1964. In the 1964, the factory started the development of automatic rifle, of Kalashnikov system, which was named M67 in 1967. On the basis of rifle M67, the factory developed automatic rifle in caliber 7.62×39mm, which was named Zastava M70 in the following year. Yugoslav People’s Army included assault rifle M70 in calibre 7.62 x 39 mm into its armament in 1970. Small arms derivatives of the M70 produced rifles chambered in Western bloc ammunition such as 7.62×51mm NATO and 5.56×45mm NATO. In 1988, the factory developed a compact design pistol in 9 mm Parabellum model M88.
PAP M59/66 (Yugo SKS) with a rifle grenade launcher and folding bayonet.
In the 1980s, the plant for action of machine guns M84, M86 in 7.62×54mmR and heavy machine gun in 12.7 NSV M87 was set to operation as well. In July 1989 Zastava started the development of the double-action pistol in calibre 9mm PARA CZ 99. In 1992, the factory finished the development and testing and started batch production of 7.62 mm submachine gun M92, based on submachine gun M85. Using the Mauser mechanism, the factory developed 12.7 mm long range rifle Black Arrow M93. During the Yugoslav Wars of 1991 to 1995, the United Nations placed economic sanctions on the import and export of weapons from Yugoslavia, production slowed as a result. In 1999 the factory was damaged by NATO bombing. In 2005 Zastava Arms underwent restructuring. The same year, a memorandum of understanding was signed with Remington Arms to export hunting and sporting guns to the United States, Canada and Mexico.
