Man pleads guilty in German weapons cache trial

A German trial related to one of the country's largest discovery of illegal weapons began on Monday, with a confession by one of the accused. 

The discovery of the weapons arsenal, hidden behind what amounted to a private weapons museum in the western city of Remscheid near Wuppertal, caused a nationwide sensation last October.

Three men are now on trial, aged 35, 38 and 60, charged with violations of the War Weapons Control Act and the Weapons Act - offences that carry sentences of up to 10 years in prison.

At the start of the trial, the defence lawyer for the 35-year-old said: "My client admits the charges. The indictment is accurate in that respect."

The defence lawyer for the 38-year-old defendant said his client was "fundamentally willing to make a statement."

The defence lawyers for the 60-year-old main defendant requested a legal discussion, saying the outcome would determine whether their client would make a statement.

Arsenal in a residential building

Senior prosecutor Daniel Müller spent almost an hour reading out what had been found in the main defendant's home: a cache spanning pistols and revolvers through to submachine guns, assault rifles and silencers.

Several well-known weapons manufacturers and brands were among them: Walther, Mauser, Luger, Beretta, Browning, Sig Sauer, Ceska, Rheinmetall, Colt, Kalashnikov, Heckler & Koch and Smith & Wesson.

The 60-year-old is also alleged to have had pen guns, butterfly knives, steel batons, electric-shock torches and knuckledusters on offer. Several weapons were described as incomplete or unusable.

Another senior prosecutor, Wolf-Tilman Baumert, said immediately before the trial began that investigators had found a witness in Poland who had confirmed the extensive trade in war weapons. 

Undercover investigators had picked up the trail of the trio after arranging an illegal weapons purchase through an intermediary.

Weapons hidden behind secret doors

The cache had been protected with secret doors, hidden rooms, concealed locking mechanisms, or else stored in the cavity of a door frame.

For days, 200 officers worked through a building complex in Remscheid town centre, where they kept uncovering new surprises. The prosecution describes it as one of the largest hauls of war weapons in Germany in recent decades.

Around 300 live firearms seized

During the searches in Remscheid, police seized around 300 live firearms - among them 125 machine guns, 67 submachine guns, 51 pistols, 32 long-barrelled weapons including precision rifles, 11 revolvers and 13 anti-tank weapons - as well as 38 hand grenades and almost 100,000 rounds of ammunition.

Wuppertal regional court has scheduled 10 hearing days for the case, through to September 23.