Border agents report that so-called “ghost guns” made from 3D-printed parts have been seized in the interior of British Columbia, after international shipments were intercepted at mail centers in Vancouver and Toronto.
The Canada Border Services Agency says in a statement that agents executed a search warrant in West Kelowna on April 27 in connection with contraband firearms parts and discovered a 3D printing machine in the process of printing a gun frame.
The agency says six completed handgun frames, all without serial numbers, were seized from the property.
The CBSA says it searched a property in Lumby, BC the next day and seized a loaded 9mm handgun without a serial number, nine unrestricted long guns, a prohibited knife, a stun gun and four drums of ammunition.
He says the two men arrested during the raids have been released pending further investigations.
In July, a Winnipeg man was arrested and charged with several offenses related to the manufacture and trafficking of a 3D-printed gun and gun parts. A few months earlier, Saskatoon police charged a man with making restricted firearms using components made with a 3D printer.
It is illegal to manufacture guns or gun frames without a firearms manufacturing license in Canada.
Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino says in a statement that “phantom weapons,” which do not have serial numbers, pose a “serious risk” because they are easy to manufacture and difficult to trace.
Smuggling firearms into Canada is punishable by a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $500,000 fine.