9-month sentence for illegal firecrackers

A 33-year-old man who was arrested last year when police found thousands of fire crackers and flares in an abandoned house in Limassol, was sentenced to nine months in prison by the Limassol criminal court on Friday.

The man was arrested on April 1, 2015 after he was seen leaving an abandoned house in Kato Polemidia, in which the biggest-ever hoard of firecrackers was discovered.

In the house, which was under surveillance by the police after a tip off, more than 168,000 firecrackers and fireworks were located, as well as 16 kilos of gunpowder, smoke bombs and 350 metres of quick-burn fuses.

A few days after the arrest, police retrieved more explosives in a container that arrived at Limassol port whose importer was the 33-year-old. The container included 10,000 firecrackers, 287 smoke bombs, 281 flares, 49 electric matches, 620 fireworks and 100 canisters of pepper spray.

The 33-year-old, who is a licensed explosives handler, and who had admitted smuggling a large number of the items from the occupied areas through Pyla, was sentenced to nine months. Court took into account the criminal record of the 33 year old and the fact that he is the father of an underage child.

 

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