This criminal invention represents a potentially serious threat to law enforcement and the public, said U.S. Customs Service Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly. We received word about these guns last month. We have since alerted our field personnel to be on the lookout for cell phone guns at U.S. ports of entry. These new covert guns were first discovered in October when Dutch police stumbled on a cache during a drug raid in Amsterdam. In another recent incident a Croatian gun dealer was caught attempting to smuggle a shipment through Slovenia into Western Europe.
Police say both shipments are believed to have originated in Yugoslavia.
Interpol sent out a warning to law enforcement agencies around the world. European border police and customs officers are at a heightened state of alert at all ports, airports and border crossings. If you didn t know they were guns, you wouldn t suspect anything, said Ari Zandbergen, spokesman for the Amsterdam police. Only when you have one in your hand do you realize that they are heavier, says Birgit Heib of the German Federal Criminal Investigation Agency. The guns are loaded by twisting the phone in half.