ROME: A Frenchman was arrested in Italy on arms trafficking charges after a police check found three anti-tank missiles and other military equipment in his van, authorities said yesterday.
The man, identified as Regis Normand, 46, was arrested in the southern port of Bari in June and remains in custody, prosecutors told AFP.
The arrest, which first came to light this week, came after police inspected the man’s van as it disembarked from a ferry arriving from Patras in Greece.
They found three Akeron portable anti-tank missiles, a training missile with no warhead, and a launch tube, according to judicial documents seen by AFP. The weapons were disguised as Nato training equipment, the documents said.
Normand, who is from the Paris region, told police the missiles had undergone repairs in the Greek island of Crete and he was ferrying them back to the Akeron’s maker, MBDA France, prosecutors said.
MBDA France did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
A French source with knowledge of the matter told AFP that MBDA had “obtained a licence to conduct tests of trial vehicles — that is to say incomplete Akeron missiles — in Greece”.
Authorities ordered further investigations, citing the lack of permits for transporting the weapons and discrepancies in the documentation provided.
The Akeron is a land and naval combat missile designed for open field or urban warfare, according to MBDA’s website.
