At yesterday’s press conference on the ongoing investigation of a suspected terrorist plot involving two men who are still in police custody, it came to light that most of the weapons seized by police are in fact legally registered in Iceland.
It had been previously reported that police seized dozens of weapons and hundreds of rounds of ammunition last week, in their efforts to foil a terrorist plot they said aimed to target police at their annual celebrations and also the halls of Parliament. Most concerning was that these weapons had been 3D printed, which would make them untraceable in Iceland.
At yesterday’s press conference, Grímur Grímsson, the chief of the capital area police, revealed that in fact very few of the weapons seized had been 3D printed. That said, some of the weapons had been converted from being single-fire guns to semi-automatic.
Sveinn Ingiberg Magnússon, chief of police for the District Prosecutors office, also told reporters that the national police requested that the district prosecutors take over the case because of a connection between a family member of someone in the national police and a person connected with the case. This request was accepted.
Sources close to RÚV say that this family connection was Guðjón Valdimarsson, the father of the Commissioner of the National Police, Sigríður Björk Guðjónsdóttir. Guðjón is a well known gunsmith and weapons retailer, and his home was amongst the 17 that police searched in the course of their investigations.
As it stands now, the situation has prompted Minister of Justice Jón Gunnarsson to plan to submit a bill which would grant the police powers of “pre-emptive investigation” if passed. He is also planning to give police the power to carry tasers. While both of these measures have been proposed to Parliament in the past, they have typically been hotly resisted. Whether they will pass this time remains to be seen.
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