CANBERRA: Australia postal service smuggled more than 100 handguns were smuggled through the Australian postal body and illegally obtained by criminals. The guns were used in armed hold-ups and other crimes after passing through Australia Post, Xinhua news agency reported. Australian police allege up to 120 pistols arrived at a Sydney post office in full or various dissembled pieces.
They were then passed onto criminal gangs such as bikers and used in crimes by Australia Post staffers.
News Corporation reported one gun was used to shoot the aunt of a feared gangster, while another was found by a plumber hidden in a gym bag full of weapons under a house.
They were just some of at least 120 Glock pistols which found their way into underworld figures after being illegally imported by the gun-smuggling ring run out of Sylvania Waters Post Office in Sydney’s south.
The details emerged in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court, where two of the men responsible for the imports, the post office’s former licensee Andrew Botros and former freight-forwarder Ahmed Karnib, pleaded guilty to their roles.
News Corporation reported police believed at least 106 complete Glock pistols and 10 partial Glock pistols were imported.
