Armed Markets: How European and American Weapons End Up in Sana’a

In November 2023, a Yemeni arms dealer posted on his Facebook page photos of a golden pistol, which he boasted had been made in Europe and would appeal to arms collectors in Houthi-controlled Sanaa.

The X-Calibur MK23 handgun first hit the market in 2023, which means it appeared in Yemen just a few months after its release.

In the first part of this ARIJ investigation, we established that this brand of weapon is made by the Slovakian company Grand Power. The ARIJ report, published in December 2024, revealed that dozens of newly manufactured American, European, and Brazilian handguns have arrived in Sanaa.

In this follow-up investigation, we trace how the Slovakian-made weapon, and others manufactured in Europe, were exported to the Czech Republic, then to a Saudi company selling arms for shooting, before ending up in Sanaa. All of this is in violation of the UN’s Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) and Security Council resolutions.

Dozens of European and American weapons, most notably Glock handguns, have found their way to Yemen, in breach of end-user certificates. This shows the lack of measures to track these weapons, after they are exported, to make sure they are not re-exported, smuggled, or misused.

In 2023, Yemen was ranked second highest in the number of deaths caused by conflict - around 56 victims per 100,000 people, according to figures released that year published by the Small Arms Survey.

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How the Weapons Reached Yemen

Yemeni arms dealer Ashraf Munef offered the Slovakian handgun for sale on his Facebook page. Like other arms dealers, he was not deterred by policies of most social media platforms which prohibit displays of firearms. And he continued to post photos of handguns and rifles, modern and old, made in both Europe and the US.

After the ARIJ report was published, towards the end of 2024, “X” closed down the accounts of a number of Yemeni arms dealers who were shown to have violated the policy of the platform. But Munef's “X” and Facebook pages remain active to this day.

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The UN-appointed Panel of Experts on Yemen have published a report on the activities of Yemeni arms dealers on social media platforms, where they displayed various models of small and light weapons made in a number of countries.

The appearance in Yemen of the X-Calibur MK23 handgun prompted us to investigate if there was a history of trading in small arms and light weapons between Slovakia, a member of the European Union, and Yemen.

Our research which used the UN Register of Conventional Arms (ROCA), the database of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute and other trade databases, revealed that there had been no previous trade between the two countries in small and light weapons, or in any firearms for that matter.

Thanks to experts at the Swiss-based Small Arms Survey, we were able to establish that the Slovakian company Grand Power manufactured the X-Calibur MK23 handgun in 2023.

We emailed Grand Power to find out how this weapon arrived Yemen, but received no response.

Through a company source, we learned that an X-Calibur MK23 was transferred to Kalibrgun in the Czech Republic that same year. Kalibrgun distributes Slovak-made Grand Power handguns and serves as a key link between the manufacturer and importing countries.

In April 2023, a number of X-Calibur Gold 9mm handguns, one of them bearing serial number K102358, were exported to Saudi Arabia, where the Arabian Hunter company is based, and then transferred to Yemen.

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“Arabian Hunter”

Arabian Hunter, part of the Ben Humaid National Trading Group, is headquartered in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It is a wholesale provider of sporting and recreational products and carries out repair and maintenance of individual firearms and hunting weapons, as well as other commercial activities.

The company is owned by Saudi businessman Nawaf Bandar bin Nayef bin Humaid, the son of the company's founder. As chairman of the Saudi-Czech Business Council in the Federation of Saudi Chambers of Commerce, he has an influential position in the Czech Republic.

We obtained a document dating from 2022, which states that Arabian Hunter had imported 320 different weapons from Grand Power via the same Czech company -Kalibrgun.

We phoned the dealer offering the X-Calibur MK23 handgun for sale, pretending to be interested in buying a batch of weapons through Arabian Hunter. The dealer confirmed that the company had agents smuggling weapons to Sanaa.

The fact that these weapons have reached Yemen is a breach of the Arms Trade Treaty, adopted by the UN in 2013, which prohibits the “diverting” of weapons from their intended end users.

We also managed to obtain a Saudi arms trading document, which makes it quite clear that transferring and trading of weapons outside Saudi Arabia is prohibited without prior approval from the relevant government authorities in the country where the supplier is based.

Furthermore, transferring weapons to Yemen violates the EU Common Position on Arms Exports (CFSP/944/2008), adopted in 2008. This policy requires member states to evaluate every arms export license based on eight criteria, including whether the importing country is experiencing tensions or armed conflict.

Yemen has been in turmoil since the uprising of 2011, which was followed by confrontations between Al-Qaeda elements in the country and the Yemeni army on the one hand, and between the army and the Houthis on the other. The fighting culminated in the Houthi seizure of Sanaa in 2014. The conflict expanded further when the Saudi-led military coalition was formed in 2015, and launched a military operation against the Houthis.

After the war broke out in Yemen, UN Security Council Resolution 2216 banned the supply of weapons to groups and individuals in the country, including the Houthis.

Dr Iain Overton, Executive Director of Action on Armed Violence, explains that arms export agreements usually include clauses to prevent re-exporting to countries subject to arms embargoes or restrictions on supply of weapons.

But he goes on to say that enforcement of such conditions is often inconsistent. Once weapons leave the country of origin, keeping track of their final destination is dependent on “good faith” and monitoring of the paper trail – and both of these are prone to manipulation and lack of transparency.

Dozens of European and US Handguns

The UN Arms Trade Treaty database suggests that Yemen has not imported any small arms since 2016, and has not taken delivery of any shipments of light weapons since 2013.

But a 2024 report by the UN Security Council Panel of Experts found that handguns bearing the trademarks of seven major European and American companies had been spotted on sale in Sanaa.

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The panel documented 98 small and light weapons on display in three gun stores in Sanaa, despite the embargo.

Among the weapons listed in its report were 51 guns from Yemen's “Glock Store.” We tracked the social media activity of this company in the first part of this investigation.

The Panel of Experts report also found ten Austrian and US-made Glock handguns for sale on social media in Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen.

After the first part of our investigation was published, the social media site “X” took down Glock Store’s page, but we had already managed to document the sale of a number of US and Austrian Glock pistols.

The Mystery Behind Glock's Appearance in Yemen

For this report, we have traced two Glock handguns, with serial numbers BYUF521 and BGTW987, which had been offered for sale on “X” by Glock Store in Sanaa.

To confirm that the photos of these guns had been taken in Yemen, a member of our investigation team visited the store in Sanaa and verified that its features matched those in the two photos of the Glock weapons.

We also contacted the store owner, who said that “X” had closed down his account and that the handguns had been sold some time before.

We reached out to the Glock headquarters in Austria to ask when the Glock 19s had been made, but we received no response.

As such,we used another email address to contact Glock's customer service department, explaining that ownership of these handguns had now been transferred to us. They told us that one of the weapons had been made in September 2022, and the other in February 2021. The weapons, therefore, arrived in Yemen roughly seven years after the UN ban came into force.

Through our German partner Paper Trail Media, we were able to contact the company and ask about how these two weapons arrived in Yemen. The company said that it did not export any weapons to Yemen and refused to identify who the intermediate buyer was.

Wolf-Christian Paes, a former member of the Security Council-appointed Panel of Experts on Yemen, says that Austria adheres to European standards regarding end-user certificates. These certificates, he explains, are merely documents in which the importing country confirms that the weapons will be used there and not re-exported. The importing company registers the end-user certificate with the export control authority and then waits for export approval.

Paes points to several loopholes in the use of end-user certificates, most notably the possibility that they are simply ignored. If the exporting country finds out that the importing country is not complying with the requirements of the certificate, it may not supply it with any more weapons.

The Austrian arms control authorities shed some light on the process of re-exporting firearms when the UN Sanctions Committee sent them photos and serial numbers of dozens of Glock pistols on sale in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen in 2023. Austrian investigators found that most of the traced serial numbers were linked to the United States. In some cases, the guns had been exported there under Austrian export licenses. The findings were sent to US authorities for follow-up. However, when we contacted the Austrian side, they said they had received no updates from the US on the outcome of any investigations..

The Austrian arms control authorities argue that weapons made in Austria are not all exported to third countries. Many manufacturers have arms production sites in other countries. They also distribute weapons commercially inside and outside the EU. And the responsibility for export control depends on where the exporting company is located.

Austrian authorities said the two serial numbers documented by our investigation team in Yemen did not appear on the list of handguns provided to them by the UN Sanctions Committee. They have since requested additional details from us about the weapons.

Intermediary Countries

A UN Panel of Experts investigation has identified several intermediary countries through which weapons made in Europe, the US, and South America reach Yemen.

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Iraq, Syria, Niger, and Somalia are among countries where assault rifles matching those sold in Houthi-controlled areas were found.

The UN report said that some Saudi shooting organizations had imported small and light arms from Brazil, Turkey, and Europe, which subsequently ended up in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen. This matches our findings.

In April 2025, Yemeni authorities in Ras al-Arah, in the province of Lahej, seized a shipment of 800 Glock handguns coming from the west coast and, which they believe, was bound for Houthi-controlled areas.

In the first part of our report, we demonstrated that border crossings between Oman and Yemen are frequently used for arms smuggling. We also established that the Arabian Sea off Yemen has become a major route for weapons trafficking, with authorities seizing 29,253 small arms and light weapons and approximately 2,380,000 rounds of ammunition between 2015 and 2023.

The legitimate government has complete control over three land border crossings, while the Houthis have full control only over the Alab crossing in the city of Saada. Saudi Arabia has closed the Harad crossing in Hajjah, and there is no passage allowed through the Baq crossing in Saada.

The Houthis control three seaports: Hodeida, Salif, and Ras Isa, while the internationally recognized government controls Yemen's eastern coastline.

In some cases, arms shipments are listed as “spare parts” or “agricultural equipment,” to deliberately mislead customs investigators.

In the first part of our report, we obtained a report which drew attention to some of the deficiencies in the running of land crossings and seaports. These included having no records of seized contraband goods and the releasing of some of these items on the instructions of local authorities.

Former Panel of Experts member Wolf Christian-Paes says Djibouti was a transit point for Brazilian guns. These were shipped there in 2015, supposedly for use by the Djibouti police, but were later moved on to Yemen by a fake Djiboutian company.

Austrian arms control authorities say they take multiple steps to prevent weapons diversion. These include requiring detailed company profiles, sales records and receipts, end-use declarations, and re-export clauses. Additionally, they only approve export licenses for individuals and traders with consent from the relevant authorities in the destination country.

Wolf-Christian Paes explains that the key problem when it comes to the diverting of arms is that there are no control mechanisms to track weapons after they are exported and ensure that end-user declarations are being complied with. However, the Austrian arms control authorities say that, since 2025, it has been agreed that their remit will include verifying weapons after they have been shipped, with a focus on high-risk weapons such as sniper rifles. None of these controls, however, have been implemented to date.

Given that weapons diversion cannot be completely prevented despite extensive efforts, Austrian arms control authorities believe approval and verification procedures must be continuously reviewed to account for changing risks and conditions.

Wolf-Christian Paes says it is crucially important to send inspection teams regularly to importing countries to examine imported weapons at random to ensure that they are being used for the purposes for which they were exported.