Dozens of guns, 20,000+ ammo seized from 2 Britons in Greece near Turkey border

Greece’s coast guard has reportedly arrested two “heavily armed” British men carrying more than a dozen guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition from Turkey, a top security official said.

A high-ranking security official told AP that the suspects were both Iraqi-born British subjects in their 20s. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the ongoing investigation.

The two were arrested Saturday night by coast guard officers near the port of the Greek city of Alexandroupolis, off the Turkish border.

The two suspects were driving a trailer loaded with more than a dozen guns of an unspecified type and well over 20,000 rounds of ammunition, the security official said. According to preliminary reports, the load included “3,357 handguns.” The number has not yet been confirmed by any other sources or official statements.

The two suspects are reportedly not on any terrorist or criminal database.

Police counterterrorist elements and National Intelligence Agency officers were scrambled to head for Alexandroupolis, AP reported.

Some previous reports say Greece’s territory was previously utilized for smuggling arms and ammunition. In May 2015, border guards in northeast Greece arrested a 28-year-old man from Syria at the Kipoi border crossing, said to be carrying a fake British driver’s license.

He was traveling to Turkey in a car with Austrian license plates. During a search, officers found more than 95,000 rounds of ammunition hidden in special compartments inside the vehicle.