Police seize 3D-printed 'ghost guns' in B.C. Interior

Border officers report so-called "ghost guns'' made from 3D-printed parts have been seized in the B.C. Interior, after international deliveries were intercepted at mail centres in Vancouver and Toronto.

The Canada Border Services Agency says in a statement thatofficers executed a search warrant in West Kelowna on April 27 inrelation to the smuggled firearms parts and discovered a 3D printingmachine in the process of printing a handgun frame.

The agency says six completed handgun frames, all without serialnumbers, were seized at the property.

The CBSA says it searched a property in Lumby, B.C., the next day andseized a loaded 9-mm handgun with no serial number, ninenon-restricted long guns, a prohibited knife, a stun gun and fourcanisters of ammunition.

Itsays the two men arrested during the raids have beenreleased pending further investigation.

In July, a Winnipeg man was arrested and charged with several offences related tomanufacturing and trafficking a 3D-printed gun and gun parts. A few months earlier, police in Saskatoon charged a man withmanufacturing restricted firearms usingcomponents made with a 3D printer.

It is illegal to make guns or gun frames without a firearms manufacturing licence in Canada.

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino says in a statement that "ghost guns,'' which lack serial numbers, pose a "serious risk''because they are easy to make and difficult to trace.

Smuggling firearms into Canada is punishable by a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment and a $500,000 fine.