Spanish customs officers uncovered more than 1,000 weapons on ship en route from Israel to Nicaragua during a standard cargo inspection on Tuesday, the governor of the southern Andalusia region announced Wednesday.
According to a report in AFP, Governor Juan Jose Lopez Garzon said officers in the Algesiras port confiscated 400 handguns and 300 rifles from a container on the Maersk Detroit.
There were also 500 air guns, the only weapons declared on the manifest.
The firearms were detected by a new US-funded scanner whose use is obligatory on all ships bound for the United States.
The Maersk Detroit, had sailed from Haifa and was due to dock in the US before continuing on to Nicaragua.
The ship was allowed to continue towards Italy after the container holding the weapons was unloaded.
