Trial opens in Wuppertal over one of Germany's largest illegal weapons caches, with 300 firearms and 100,000 rounds seized

The discovery

In October 2025, undercover police officers were offered illegal weapons for sale, triggering an investigation that led to a 60-year-old car mechanic and gunsmith in Remscheid. On 26 October, special forces stopped his car on the A1 motorway and arrested him. Over the following days, 200 officers from local police and the North Rhine-Westphalia State Criminal Police Office searched his two-storey building in the city centre.

Behind a façade of a private museum of legal decommissioned World War II weapons and militaria, investigators found hidden rooms. Secret doors, concealed locking mechanisms, and false walls shielded caches of live firearms and explosives. Even a hollow door frame contained ammunition.

The arsenal

Prosecutor Daniel Müller needed nearly an hour to read out the list of seized items. In total, police recovered 300 sharp firearms: 125 machine guns, 67 submachine guns, 51 pistols, 32 long guns (including precision rifles), 11 revolvers, and 13 anti-tank weapons. They also found 38 hand grenades and almost 100,000 rounds of ammunition. Brands included Walther, Mauser, Luger, Beretta, Browning, Sig Sauer, Ceska, Rheinmetall, Colt, Kalashnikov, Heckler & Koch, and Smith & Wesson. Some weapons were incomplete or unusable.

With the seized hand grenades and explosives, one could have killed and injured a large number of people. That ranges from a rampage or terrorist attack to even waging warlike conflicts.

The trial

On Monday, the trial of the three defendants began at the Wuppertal Regional Court. The 35-year-old Turkish national, Yunus K., confessed through his lawyer. "My client admits the charges. The indictment is accurate in that respect," his defence attorney said. The 38-year-old co-defendant, Ilhan A., signalled willingness to testify. Lawyers for the main defendant, Konstantin I., requested a closed-door legal discussion before deciding whether he would speak.

Presiding Judge Alexander Schräder indicated possible sentences after that discussion: seven to eight years for the main defendant if he makes a full confession, and two to four years for the co-defendants. The trial is scheduled for ten hearing days until 23 September.

I have never seen anything like this.

The alleged trade

According to the indictment, Konstantin I. decided at an unknown point to sell weapons from his vast collection. He turned to Ilhan A., with whom he appeared to have a close relationship; the two embraced in court on Monday. Ilhan A., partly assisted by Yunus K., allegedly found buyers for six ready-to-fire machine pistols, a revolver, and ammunition. Two machine pistols went to a man in Hamm, now under separate investigation. The rest were sold to undercover police officers, which ultimately exposed the source.

A kiosk in central Remscheid served as a meeting point for the deals. Its owner has already been sentenced to seven years and nine months for armed cocaine trafficking. A witness in Poland also confirmed the extensive trade in war weapons, according to prosecutor Wolf-Tilman Baumert.

Timeline of the investigation

The main defendant claimed to investigators that most of the weapons were part of his private collection and not intended for sale. He admitted only to selling a few individual pieces. His workshop contained tools that could have been used to reactivate old, demilitarised weapons. The seized items are now stored at a secret location; collectors have already expressed interest.