The background of the controversial purchase of 15 million bullets to an Israeli company: 9,216 guns of the same manufacturer | Spain
The controversial award by the Ministry of Interior of a contract of 6.6 million euros To the Israeli company Guardian Defense & Homeland Security SA for the supply of 15 million bullets of the 9 mm caliber Provide the Civil Guard 9,216 guns. Part of the now acquired ammunition is addressed to these.
The purchase of those guns, called RamonIt was also then wrapped in the controversy after professional associations of civil guards denounced that the weapon, which began to be distributed in the units in 2021, supposedly gave problems when shooting since it was more frequently pigeoned than the model they were going to replace. The Israeli company always denied the criticism and then attributed the problems to the ammunition of 9 millimeters then used by the Civil Guard and that it was from other manufacturers. An internal report of the armed institute admitted related failures « to the pistol extraction system », which is responsible for taking out the pod once perceived the projectile.
The Israeli company won the contest by presenting an offer for just under three million euros, which meant a reduction close to 30% on the maximum bidding price. Each gun Ramon It came out for 269 euros, taxes apart, and included delivery within the same price of an antihurt cover. The price represented 60% of the final valuation of the contest, well above the technical aspects. From behind was the manufacturer of the Austrian gun Glockused by the National Police and by the security forces of other countries around us, whose offer was 36 euros more expensive per unit.
Those alleged problems with the gun of the Israeli manufacturer arrived at the Congress of Deputies, where PP, Vox and Mixed Group echoed the complaints of the associations and presented a battery of questions in writing to Congress and came to ask for the appearance of the then general director of the Civil Guard, María Gámez. In a written parliamentary response of January 2023, the Government said that of the 6,144 guns Ramon Supplied until that time, « 87 have suffered incidents during the conduct of shooting exercises, so the manufacturer was requested to analyze such incidents, performing an update of the pieces in order to improve the behavior of the weapon with the different ammunition used in the Civil Guard. » That improvement extended to « the entire supply » then remarked the Executive. Armed Institute sources now insist that the failures were « punctual » and remedied. « The agents have them endowed and have not given problems again, » they add.
On April 16, the BOE published another award from the Ministry of Interior to the Israeli company. It was, in this case, the purchase of 463 level IV ballistic plates to strengthen the anti -lump vests of the maritime service agents of the Armed Institute for a value exceeding 300,000 euros, taxes included. The contract was signed on April 10 between number two of Interior, Rafael Pérez, Secretary of State for Security, and the Single Administrator of the subsidiary in Spain of the Israeli company, as recorded in the documentation to which this newspaper has had access.
