Barcelona, July 02: Police and customs officials seized hundreds of rifles and machine guns allegedly destined for Africa from a container on a ship off Spain's Mediterranean Coast, police said. Police said 280 KLA machine guns and 100 K2 assault rifles, along with 760 weapon cartrides, were found in a container Monday on the cargo ship traveling from Pusan, South Korea, to Dakar, Senegal, in western Africa.

The ship was passing Barcelona, on Spain's northeast coast, when police intercepted it. A Barcelona court ordered that the container be seized and searched based on Spanish intelligence reports, a news agency reported.

Police said the weapons were being transported illegally and with falsified documentation. The captain and crew of the ship were not detained. "The captain had no idea his ship was carrying weapons," said a spokeswoman at Barcelona police, speaking on the customary condition of anonymity.

Bureau Report