A 26-year-old man pleaded guilty at Limassol District Court on Thursday to illegally possessing and carrying a loaded sawn-off shotgun and 11 live cartridges found in a car in Limassol, and was remanded in custody until he is sentenced next week.
He admitted charges of illegally possessing and transporting a firearm, a double-barrelled shotgun with sawn-off barrels, and of possessing and transporting explosives, namely the cartridges.
A 21-year-old woman who was with him was released without charge.
According to the facts of the case, a member of the public told officers from the Limassol Crime Prevention Squad at about 1.25am on 31 October that there was a gun in a parked car. The plain-clothes officers put the car under discreet surveillance and, at about 1.45am, saw a man and a woman get into it. They identified themselves as police and searched the car.
They found the loaded shotgun on the back seat. Both denied it was theirs and were arrested. A further search found a bag containing the 11 live cartridges.
Checks on the police computer system showed the shotgun was registered to a person who died in March 2024.
The 26-year-old arrived in Cyprus as a visitor in September. He told officers he lives in another town in Cyprus and was in Limassol for a stroll.
