A French consulate worker has been arrested on accusations of using an official car to smuggle dozens of guns from the Gaza Strip to the occupied West Bank, Israeli occupation authorities said Monday.

Israeli security agency, Shin Bet said in a statement that the French citizen and several Palestinian suspects are accused of belonging to a gun-running network that eventually sold the weapons to arms dealers.

It said Romain Franck, in his mid-20s, had taken advantage of reduced security checks for consular vehicles to transport the weapons out of the Palestinian enclave.

The Shin Bet said “he acted on his own and was motivated by money,” adding that “his superiors were not aware of his actions.”

“The consulate employee smuggled the arms on a number of occasions in recent months while using the French consulate’s consular car, which underwent a more lax security inspection at the border crossing, as is the case with this type of car,” the statement said.

“The consulate employee transferred arms on five occasions, during which he transferred some 70 pistols and two automatic rifles.”

Source: AFP