NINE British soldiers are facing a court martial for allegedly smuggling guns out of Iraq to sell for drugs and cash. Investigators fear that weapons and ammunition being trafficked by troops from war zones will end up in the hands of gangsters.

The soldiers from the 3rd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment are accused of buying cocaine from gangs in Germany, where their unit was based. Royal Military Police have investigated claims that the alleged drugs were sold to other British troops still serving in Iraq.

A former security official involved in tracing the flow of battlefield weapons to the criminal underground told The Times yesterday: “This is happening far more often than the authorities choose to admit and it is hard to stop the practice.”

He believes that troops are adept at hiding weapons and ammunition among military hardware being shipped back to Britain.

The cache is dispersed among hundreds of shipping containers. If the arms are found the military cannot prove who owns them. If they slip through searches the smugglers collect and dispose of them quickly to drug gangs who are always in the market for weapons, the official said.

Investigators say that the weapons are worth more if ammunition is also provided.

“An AK47 rifle with 200 rounds will go for between £2,000 and £3,000. A Glock pistol, which is used by the new Iraqi police force, will fetch more than £1,000, as long as there is ammunition, as that is far harder to get than the guns,” the source added.

This year a group of 120 police recruits who were being trained in southern Iraq all claimed to have lost their pistols. Some were later found on the black market in Basra. Military authorities concede that soldiers have brought home war trophies since Classical times but the fear is that weaponry is being smuggled back to sell to criminals.

A recent investigation by The Times reported that a lethal collection of illicit weaponry from Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo had been seized.

The risk of weapons reaching gangs was highlighted by the murder in Hertfordshire in 2003 of the gangster Dave King, who was shot with an AK47. It was the first time that a Kalashnikov had been used by British street criminals. It was believed that the rifle had been brought back by a serviceman from the Balkans.

Charges were announced yesterday by the Army Prosecuting Authority against nine soldiers who served in Iraq last year. The men were then with The Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, which was amalgamated into The Yorkshire Regiment that was formed in June. The armoured infantry unit is now based at Battlesbury Barracks in Warminster, Wiltshire.

The investigation is reported to involve soldiers from another regiment. The Ministry of Defence has not said whether the weapons allegedly sold were British army issue or were taken from Iraqi soldiers or police, or insurgent groups.

The men are due to appear at Catterick Garrison on November 30 when arrangements for a court martial may be decided.

One of the men involved is understood to be a constituent of Patrick Mercer, the Conservative spokesman on homeland security, who has criticised the time it has taken the Ministry of Defence to carry out its investigation. The MoD set up Operation Plunder to search vehicles and baggage for military trophies and souvenirs.

Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and information from Revenue & Customs show that 19 seizures of weapons and ammunition have been made in Britain since 2000.

A month after the fall of Baghdad in 2003, the first weaponry from Iraq was discovered in Britain: two SKS AR rifles.

Since then an RPG7 rocket-propelled grenade launcher from Iraq, a 60mm Iraqi mortar, a 140mm shell casing and ammunition has been seized.

Perhaps the most impressive trophy was a gold-plated AK47, presumed stolen from one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces.

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