French Gendarmerie returns pistol to Spain that belonged to Niceto Alcalá-Zamora

Eduardo González The French National Gendarmerie has returned to the Spanish government a pistol that belonged to Niceto Alcalá-Zamora, the first president of Spain's Second Republic, and which had been illegally in the possession of a French collector. The weapon was recovered on January 7, 2025, during a court-ordered operation by the National Gendarmerie, according to the French Ministry of the Interior. It all began in June 2024, when the Spanish Civil Guard alerted the National Gendarmerie that a French collector had requested information about this pistol from a Spanish manufacturer. Initial tests suggested that the weapon might be in the collector's possession without legal authorization, after which an investigation was opened in the Meaux Court of Appeal, in northern France. The joint work of the Paris Investigation Section and the Civil Guard's intelligence group led, on January 7, 2025, to a judicial operation that resulted in the discovery of some thirty undeclared weapons, including this pistol. Last Thursday, December 11, 2025, Lieutenant General Lionel Lavergne, Director of Operations and Employment (DOE) of the National Gendarmerie, handed the pistol over to the Spanish Ambassador to France, Victorio Redondo Bladrich. The weapon, a Damascened pistol inlaid with gold and silver, had been given to Alcalá-Zamora in September 1932 by the women's group of the Republican Association of Eibar. [caption id="attachment_132624" align="alignnone" width="750"] Photo: www.gendarmerie.interieur.gouv.fr[/caption] The solemn ceremony for the return of the pistol to Spanish authorities took place at the headquarters of the Directorate General of the National Gendarmerie (DGGN), in the presence of the head of Weapons, Explosives, and Security of the Civil Guard, Brigadier General Antonio Cortés Ruiz, high-ranking officers of the National Gendarmerie and the Civil Guard, and the magistrate who participated in the investigation, Myriam Khouas, Deputy Prosecutor of Meaux. “By returning this weapon to Spain, we are doing more than handing over an object; we are returning a part of a country’s heritage,” declared Lieutenant General Lionel Lavergne during the ceremony. “The handover of this pistol testifies to the close ties that bind the National Gendarmerie and the Civil Guard,” stated the Spanish Ambassador. “The mutual trust shown by the investigators in their work has allowed them to find a unique object of incalculable cultural and historical value,” he added.

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