The perpetrators could easily steal 52,000 pistol cartridges - MSB responds to police criticism

At the beginning of the week, a truck filled with ammunition was on its way from Germany to a wholesaler in Sweden. The night before Tuesday, the driver stopped at a regular parking lot, in the morning he woke up to a broken chapel.

The thieves took with them 52,000 sharply charged cartridges of the caliber 9 millimeters, says Robert Loeffel, spokesman for the police Syd for SVT Nyheter.

-I have worked as a policeman for a lot of years, but I have never been involved in such a large theft of ammunition, he says.

According to Robert Loeffel, the perpetrators were only interested in the 9 millimeter cartridges, when they searched other ammunition in the truck but chose not to steal it. The police do not know how the thieves knew that the truck, packed with cartridges, would stop at the rest area.

-I can only state that in many canopy cuts, the perpetrators happen to be so lucky that those of all the trucks that are lined up hit right.

The police have not been able to see that any mistake was made in connection with the transport. The incident has created an upset atmosphere in the police station in Kristianstad, says Robert Loeffel.

-In Sweden, we work hard to stop weapons from falling into the hands of criminals. Should it be so easy to just cut up a chapel and get access to the amount of ammunition that can supply large parts of Sweden's criminals for a long time to come?

The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, MSB, is responsible for the transport of ammunition through the Dangerous Goods Transport Act. The head of the unit, Fredrik Nyström, says that there are reliefs in the transport protection rules which means that, depending on how the ammunition is packed, it is possible to carry out fairly large transports without being covered by the rules.

This means that you can transport the ammunition in an ordinary truck with a canopy - and stop at a rest area to spend the night.

Do you think it is safe to transport ammunition that way?

-We are of the opinion that the transport protection rules need to be developed. We work continuously with it internationally within the UN and also in a national forum run by the police.

Is there a reason to review whether these rules need to be changed?

-There are international rules. There is a theoretical possibility for Sweden to establish national rules for criminal protection that apply to transport. But then there will be a balance between increased safety and the competitive disadvantages and difficulties that arise for international traffic to comply with such rules. There is no work MSB can carry out on its own initiative.