Amsterdam detectives have made a major haul of weapons, including Kalashnikov automatic rifles, at a house in the village of Loosdrecht, the Telegraaf says on Thursday.

Seven people were arrested in connection with the haul which included 17 Kalashnikovs, an AR15 rifle, seven hand guns, 36 hand grenades, thousands of bullets and several kilos of white powder, thought to be cocaine.

The Telegraaf points out that Kalashnikovs have been used in several of the recent gangland killings in the Dutch capital and says police consider some of those arrested may have had a role as ‘facilitators’.

‘It is still too soon to say if we have got one of the weaponries for the Mocro-maffia,’ police chief Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg told the Telegraaf. Mocro-maffia is the name given to organised crime gangs which centre on Dutch-Moroccan criminals.

‘But this seizure shows we are doing all we can to remove heavy weaponry from Amsterdam. Further research will show if this equipment can be linked to people who have been involved in the killings. You don’t need this stuff to rob a petrol station.’

The Loosdrecht haul followed the discovery of cocaine and several weapons in a home in Amsterdam’s Zuidoost district, where six of the seven people were arrested, the Telegraaf says.