UN police in Kosovo seized some 230,000 rounds of shotgun ammunition in three separate operations in the past week, a UN spokesman said today.
Mr Andrea Angeli said the ammunition, weighing up to 8.5 tons, was mostly manufactured in Serbia, but some of the rounds were also of Italian make.
"The largest cargo, 185,000 rounds, was found in a truck coming from southern Serbia into Kosovo," Angeli said.
The remaining ammunition was found in shops in the southern town of Urosevac and eastern town of Gnjilane.
UN police say no arrests were made since no attempt had been made to hide the ammunition.
According to Angeli, shotguns were used in most murders committed in the province in recent months.
The ammunition will be destroyed in Bondsteel, the largest US military base in Kosovo, in the coming weeks.
In September 140 shotguns were seized by UN border police and Kosovo custom service after they were found hidden in a Bulgarian-registered truck entering Kosovo from Macedonia.
Kosovo, a Serbian province mostly populated by ethnic Albanians, has been under UN and NATO control since June 1999.
AFP