SEE ALSO: Five things to know about guns in GermanyThree other former employees were cleared of charges. Prosecutors had charged that 15 shipments of the military-style weapons between 2006 and 2009 breached Germany's so-called war weapons control law because they ended up in especially violence-torn Mexican states in breach of the export licence. The Mexican defence ministry, which is in charge of gun imports, had approved the import of 9,652 H&K rifles, of which 4,796 went to states with particular human rights concerns, including Guerrero, German newspapers have reported. A driving force in the investigation leading to the trial was German rights activist Juergen Graesslin, who first issued a criminal complaint against H&K staff over the Mexico sales in 2010. The campaigner said it was well known that in the most conflict-torn Mexican states both police and narco-gangsters used the G36, and that "often the two groups cooperate".

Source: The Local February 21, 2019 10:30 UTC