Weapons Discovered Near Lithuanian Refugee Reception Center Housing Chechens

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 VILNIUS 000519

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EUR/NB, S/CT, DS/IP/EUR, AND DS/ITA/EUR

TALLINN FOR FBI

MOSCOW FOR DAO, RSO, AND FBI

DIA PASS TO DHO-2 AND JITF-CT

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/16/2015
TAGS:
SUBJECT: Weapons Discovered Near Lithuanian Refugee
Reception Center Housing Chechens

Ref: Vilnius 1106


1. (U) Classified By RSO Brent A. Barker. Reason 1.5
(D).


2. (S) Summary. The Lithuanian Police recently
disclosed to us that they discovered a significant
cache of weapons last June near a Refugee Center
outside of Kaunas. The weapons included Russian Flame
Rocket Launchers, assault rifles, and explosives. The
Police believe the weapons belonged to Chechens
residing at the Refugee Reception Center. End summary.


3. (C) On April 22, the Deputy Director of the
Forensics Lab and the Head of the International Office
of the Lithuanian Police requested technical assistance
from RSO regarding a weapons cache discovered last
year. Lithuanian children playing last June in the
forest discovered several items buried approximately
200 meters from the Rukla Refugee Reception Center, a
350-person facility near the central Lithuanian city of
Kaunas. Although buried in the ground, the items had
been partially uncovered by weather. The children dug,
further uncovering the cache. When they realized there
were weapons among the buried items, they told their
parents. The parents reported the discovery to the
local Police.


4. (C) The following items were discovered:

Russian RPO-A Shmel 93mm Recoilless Infantry Flame
Thrower / Launcher (Quantity 2)

AK-47 Assault Rifles (Quantity 2)

Ammunition and Magazines for AK-47

Mobile Phone modified to act as an IED triggering
device

Remote Control IED triggering device

TNT 400 grams (Quantity 1 Block). The Block had
Russian Markings

TNT 200 grams each (Quantity 3 Block) wrapped together
with RDX sheet between each Block.

Plastic Explosives 200 grams each (Quantity 3 Block).
The covers form the explosives had been removed.

RSO has digital photos of the flame launchers and
triggering devices.


5. (C) The Police suspect that the items discovered
belonged to Chechens. While they admit that they
cannot confirm this, they base their suspicion on the
fact that Chechens are regularly housed at the Rukla
Refugee Reception Center and there were Chechens there
at the time the weapons were discovered. In addition,
the Police say that Lithuanian organized crime has
never used weapons such as Flame Launchers, and they
see no practical reason that they would begin to use
them. The Police took fingerprint and DNA samples from
the recovered items but found no matches.


6. (C) Upon X-Raying the two Flame Launchers, the
Police found that the design did not match the
technical information that they had. They asked for
RSO assistance to determine the best way to dispose of
the Flame Launchers (both of which had had their data
plates removed).


7. (S) The Defense Attach?s Office expressed an
interest in taking possession of the Flame Launchers
for examination by technical experts. The Police have
agreed to turn over the two Flame Launchers to us. The
DAO is making arrangements to take possession of the
weapons and forward them to the appropriate experts.


8. (S) The Police admit that they have no firm evidence
of where the items came from or what their final
destination was. The Police said that they have not
contacted Russian authorities to inform them of the
discovery or request technical information.


9. (S) The RAO contacted the State Security Department
(Lithuania's Intelligence Service, known by its
Lithuanian acronym VSD) about this discovery. VSD
officials stated that an informant had reported one
anti-tank 81mm rocket in the same area. RSO spoke
again to the Police investigators to confirm the
information about how the items in their possession
were discovered. The follow-up information from the
Police confirms that the VSD information referred to
another, separate incident.

10.(S) Comment. This is a disturbing development, as
it provides the first indication we are aware of that
Lithuania may be serving as a weapons transit route.
Previous information indicated that Chechens residing
in Lithuania were involved in petty crime but otherwise
were not a threat, although the basing of a pro-Chechen
website in Lithuania has been an intermittent source of
tension between Russia and the GOL (reftel). The
Police are concerned about the arms discovery, but
downplay the possibility of a terrorist threat in
Lithuania from Chechens or anyone else. We are less
serene, and will work with the police and other GOL
security officials to take this discovery seriously.
The information that our investigators develop when
they examine the weapons will give us an opportunity to
reinvigorate the Lithuanian effort.

MULL