The police have found a 3D weapons factory in a house in Rhoon. It is the first time that the police in the Netherlands have encountered a place where 3D weapons are printed.
The police made the find on Wednesday, when officers on the A4 near Leiden checked a car that came up in another investigation. They found a firearm in that car, after which the three occupants were arrested.
In the house of one of the suspects, a 30-year-old man from Rhoon, officers then found nine 3D printers that were printing parts of firearms at the time. There were also dozens of parts that had already been printed and sets with metal parts that are needed to make a working firearm.
Quality
The Dutch police are investigating the use of and trade in 3D-printed firearms in the country. The extent of this is not yet known. It is also not yet clear whether there are actually weapons in circulation from the home factory in Rhoon.
Blueprints for self-printing firearms are circulating on the internet, but according to weapons experts, the quality of 3D-printed weapons has so far not been very good. Moreover, it is easy to obtain real firearms in the criminal circuit, so that 3D weapons do not seem to be a very useful alternative for the time being.
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