A collaborative effort of the Shabak, IDF special forces unit Duvdevan and Israel Samaria police on Sunday night captured a cell of manufacturers and dealers of improvised weapons in Oreef Village near Shechem. The operation netted various types of improvised weapons, and four Lathes that were used to make the weapons.
The home-made weapons made in the Oreef facility were being sold in other parts of Judea and Samaria, and included Carlo (a simplified version of the Swedish Carl Gustav submachine-gun), the originally US-made M-16 rifles, and Uzis.
Security forces believe the four cell members, ages 24 to 46, collaborated with Israeli weapons dealers. Two of the arrested cell members, Assam Najam Sharif Safadi, 39, and Ali Najah Sharif Safadi, 41, are also members of the Palestinian Authority Intelligence Services.
Al Monitor columnist Shlomi Eldar cited a PA Arab source who told him, “You don’t need a lot of imagination, professional skill or resources to manufacture the Carlo. All you need is a piece of pipe. With a lathe, you can convert it into the barrel, chamber and firing pin of a rifle.”
There are two prototypes of the Carlo, one with a short barrel, the other with a long barrel, selling for between $770 and $4,400, depending on the reputation of the gun maker. Eldar cited another Arab source who told him that “a few hundred of these rifles are making the rounds in the territories,” and “can be found in quite a few homes, mainly for self-defense, but also just to boost people’s egos. In our society, if you don’t have a gun, you don’t count, and that’s especially true in the refugee camps. Even an old, unreliable Carlo is better than nothing.”