According to Police Chief Pieter Jaap Aalbersberg, the Amsterdam police seized 33 Kalashnikov rifles in the past four months. "And that is significantly more than in previous years." The Amsterdam police have found 300 weapons in the last six months, the police chief said on the AT5 program Het Verhoor.

"Even though firearm incidents are decreasing in the city, the heavy weapons are increasing. This is one of the major components of our detection approach. We have in recent years not had the priority on arms trade high on the agenda. I think that priority should be back. That will brake the availability of such weapons in our city", said Allbersberg.

Mayor Eberhard van der Laan said on Wednesday that it is easier for criminals to come by automatic weapons since the borders within the European Union were opened and the “structures of the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and Balkans” fell away.

In the past couple of years, Kalashnikov rifles have been used regularly in executions related to the gang war currently raging in Amsterdam.