I know the Belgian FN is a favorite this include Winchester and Browning.
Berreta and Makarov are also nice lol..

I forgot Glock, Gaston Glock died in December.

Are you single?

UZI is still a king.

AK -47 is the best but it is based on the German Sturmgewehr 44 , StG 44 and the Sturmgewehr 45(M) , StG 45, the prototype drawings of which the Russians had found towards the end of WWII.

Those are preferred by European and Asian mobs. In the US, the near-ubiquitous 9mm (lightweight, concealable, plenty of specialty ammo available) is king. Ruger and Glock. Tactical shotguns (Winchester and Remington) also popular. 1911-style autoloaders (Colt, Rock Island) for serious work.

German monster
Name: Heckler & Koch

Current: The police images of the liquidation of professional crime boss Stanley Hillis, February 2011, are now legendary. We see a hit man get out of a VW Transporter, nervously approach the side of a Mitsubishi parked across the street and then fire. No fewer than 37 bullets then fly out of the semi-automatic Heckler & Koch that the shooter uses.

History: During the Second World War, the engineers of the German Mauser Werk developed a submachine gun with the name StG44 (or: Sturmgewehr model 1944). At the end of the war they introduced a new model of the same weapon: the StG45. The three engineers behind this Mauser weapon – Edmund Heckler, Theodor Koch and Alexis Seidel – developed a weapon that has killed hundreds of thousands of Allied and Russian soldiers. After the war, these three Germans were prohibited from devising and manufacturing weapons for their own national army. After many detours and alliances with foreign arms factories, the three engineers finally - when the spirit of the times allowed it - founded their own arms factory, Heckler and Koch, near Oberndorf am Neckar in the south of what was then West Germany. This company released the legendary MP5 in 1964. In other words, the 9 millimeter Machine Pistole 5.

Most commonly used type: The HK MP5 is a household name in the arms world. It is the submachine gun that arrest teams of the Dutch police have been equipped with for years. The Royal Military Police also works with this type of Heckler and Koch. Although it seems to be a huge job to build such a beast in no time.

In the United States, aside from the mob’s use of Tommy-Guns, rifles, and sawed-off shotguns during times of open gangland warfare, mob hitmen of the organized criminal underworld, be they Italian, Jewish, Irish, etc., tended to use .32 and .38 caliber “revolvers” for assassinations.

This it’s not to say that other calibers weren’t used, but the .32 and .38 revolvers were preferred. Both had tremendous firepower and even if you didn’t strike a major organ, they caused tremendous damage upon impact.

The reasoning for this was simple. Revolvers are more dependable than automatics because the cylinders on revolvers don’t jam, whereas the clip and action on an automatic pistol has the potential to jam up. More than one assassination was botched over the years for this very reason.

This is not to say that automatics weren’t used, because they were. I imagine they utilized whatever weapon was on hand and available to carry out a murder contract. But the more savvy killers tended to prefer revolvers for the reasons I mentioned.

By the mid-1970s, the widespread use of .22 caliber “automatics” became a preferred weapon of choice (and almost a fad among mafiosi) because a “hollow point” .22 caliber “Long” bullet could also cause tremendous damage. A "hollow point" spreads wider upon impact. So although it was only a .22 caliber, upon entering the body, the bullet took on a larger and more jagged edge, with the small, light-weight bullet tending to ricochet around within the victims body. So although the bullet didn’t have the firepower and initial impact of, say, a .38 caliber or 9mm shell, the .22 caliber would tear up organs and muscles as it traveled around inside an intended victim.

Other added benefits (and major considerations for using .22s) was that they made less noise, the clips held more bullets, and the weapons were usually smaller and lighter to carry on your person, making them easier to conceal in public…with the Italian-made .22 caliber Beretta becoming a favorite.

Thanks Turnbull and NYM.

Italian ingenuity
Name: Beretta

Current: Major criminals who were liquidated with a Beretta: Jan Femer (2000) and August Adjoeba (2008). Reason: it must have been the handy size, plus of course the guaranteed quality of this rock-solid Italian brand.

History: For the story of the Beretta we really have to go to the history books. As far back as the late Middle Ages, there is talk of an Italian family firm that called itself Beretta and made weapons. And what is very special, even now, after 500 years, the company is still in family hands. A history with highs and lows. To start with the latter, for example, the Beretta factory produces the weapon of the Italian fascist regime of Benito Mussolini: the Beretta 1915.

Most commonly used type: In 1975, Beretta introduced its first 9mm pistol: the Beretta 92. That weapon is still the most used 'self-loading' pistol in police forces around the world. Today, about 1,500 Berettas roll off the production lines every day. The Italian family business also has a large number of subsidiaries, including Benelli, Franchi, Sako, Stoeger, Tikka, Uberti, Burris Optics and a 20 percent share in Browning firearms.

Browning is another respectable brand that builds quality weapons. I know that shotguns made by Browning are very popular. They're made in Belgium, correct, Hollander?

Swiss precision work
Name: Brügger & Thomet

Current: When the news came out at the end of last November that Ricardo RV had been arrested in Chile, it caused some commotion among the crime news. The Chilean criminal, nicknamed 'Rico' or 'Bonzo', had been mentioned for some time as someone who would play a major role in the Mocro Mafia. But there was no evidence for this.

Now that 'Rico' is being held in a Dutch cell, the Public Prosecution Service is releasing a little more information about the criminal. For example, he appears in an investigation into a series of money finds from two other Chileans in Amsterdam and Badhoevedorp last July. The police found large amounts of money, thousands of euros worth of 500 notes, for example. But the most sensational was the presence of a submachine gun at one of the addresses investigated. A Brügger & Thomet MP9.


History: The Swiss Brügger & Thomet has been around since the 1920s, but made a new start at the end of the twentieth century. The weapons that this company manufactures are almost all intended for the military market. Think of grenade launchers, snipers and hand pistols. The brand also produces pistols for veterinarians and hunters on a modest scale.

Most commonly used type: The MP9 found by Rico's accomplices has been manufactured in Switzerland since 2004. It is used by the air force in the Netherlands. For example, Dutch F16 pilots carried this weapon on missions in Iraq. Another organization that uses an MP9 is the FSB in Russia, the secret intelligence service.

Yes FN Herstal is a huge player.
The most popular 'Belgian weapon' in the Colombian underworld seems to be the Browning BDA 380. These pistols were commissioned by FN Herstal and made by the Italian company Beretta and sold in Canada and the United States.

Since 2013 the Dutch police is armed with the Walther P99Q, as a replacement for the Walther P5 (45,000 pistols).

Camorra's Raffaele Imperiale's weapons stash lol.

https://nltimes.nl/sites/nltimes.nl...lic/2023-03/Campaniabust3.jpg?h=111d0cfb

https://nltimes.nl/sites/nltimes.nl...lic/2023-03/Campaniabust2.jpg?h=526a879f