Posted on 05/24/2008 7:10:41 AM PDT by marktwain
A 29-year-old man from Manchester has been found guilty of being involved in what is believed to the UK's biggest ever gun conspiracy.
Kaleem Akhtar was convicted at Manchester Crown Court of conspiracy to possess firearms and ammunition with intent to endanger life.
He supplied an "assassin's armoury" of handguns, and ammunition to gangsters across the UK, the court was told.
Akhtar, of Chorlton, will be sentenced, together with six other men, on 2 June.
His co-conspirators all pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to their parts in the operation.
Russian-made guns
Madasser Ali, 30, of Great Horton Road in Bradford, West Yorkshire, admitted conspiracy to possess firearms and ammunition with intent to endanger life.
Paul Wilson, 36, of Liverpool Road, Southport, also pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge.
Asaid Saleem, 27, of Bedford Road, Trafford, was employed by Akhtar to package the guns into the assassin's kits, and transport them to suppliers.
He pleaded guilty to possessing firearms and ammunition with intent to endanger life and possessing prohibited weapons and ammunition and possessing ammunition without a firearm certificate.
He also pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge on 10 April.
Brothers Agnius Malcevas, 26, and Edgaras Malcevas, 39, who are both from Lithuania but live in Essex, were responsible for driving the guns up to Manchester to meet with Madasser Ali.
Overall, this operation uncovered the largest network of illegally held weapons ever seen in this country and included the second largest single seizure of firearms in Greater Manchester
Nicholas Clarke QC, prosecutor
Agnius pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge, and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life while Edgaras admitted possession of a prohibited weapon.
Michael Peake, 44, of Lancing Drive, Liverpool, pleaded guilty to possession of firearms with intent to endanger life, and possession of a prohibited weapon.
The guns, brought from Essex, were found in Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Leeds, Bradford and Scotland.
Many of them were legal blank-firing weapons converted to fire live rounds, the court heard.
All of the weapons were Russian-made Baikal self-loading gas handguns, blank-firing weapons, which can be sold legally for about £100 in some European countries.
However, every one had been expertly modified and were sold on the street for up to £2,500 each, the jury was told.
During one operation in Manchester police seized 29 guns and 859 bullets, but officers believe that around 234 more guns were distributed in addition to the thousands of rounds which were found.
Nicholas Clarke QC prosecuting said: "This conspiracy involved the introduction of large numbers of lethal weapons and ammunition into the criminal underworld.
"Overall, this operation uncovered the largest network of illegally held weapons ever seen in this country and included the second largest single seizure of firearms in Greater Manchester.
"Had the distribution of these additional firearms been successful the impact on gun crime in Greater Manchester would have been enormous."
In the article, the pictures show a silencer as well. Silencers are common in England, as they are in much of Europe. Most places, they are less regulated than firearms are, the opposite of the United States. Silencers are only highly regulated in the US by historic accident, and it was one of the worst public health decisions in history. Millions of Americans have lost significant hearing because of FDR's paranoia.
In Finland, there are *no* regulations on Silencers, and they have no problems with them.
Then criminals paid around $5000 each for these dangerous, cobbled-together theatrical props? I find that hard to believe. They could get a fine real handgun and ammo smuggled in for far less than that.
“Then criminals paid around $5000 each for these dangerous, cobbled-together theatrical props? I find that hard to believe. They could get a fine real handgun and ammo smuggled in for far less than that.”
LOL at thinking a british publication would try to, or even be able, to reach that level of analysis with firearms.
Which one would build up more pressure, the 8mm blank, or the 9mm live round? I don’t know if you mean for it to sound that way, but it sounds to me like the 8mm has more pressure than the 9mm.
A live round is blocked by the bullet which fits very tightly in the rifled barrel, so pressure builds up quickly until the bullet can be pushed out of the barrel. These blank guns are not made to hold the pressure of that sort of explosion. They probably don't even have steel barrels. Shooting live ammo in something like that is like holding an M-80 in your hand, it's only a matter of time until it blows up with catastrophic results.
While I wouldn't doubt that the press would engage in exaggeration (one UK news site showed a picture of a "gun" they were offered for sale, and wrote as though it were a real gun, when it was in fact clearly a cigarette lighter) I wonder whether it might be practical to construct a sleeve to fire 7.65mm or some similar round? Reliable feeding and operation would be tricky, but I would think pressure should be manageable.
Yes that could be done. If the dimensions of the bolt face were correct for the ammo, one could “sleeve” a zinc barrel with a steel tube for .32 ACP or something and have a fireable weapon. However I still think that if I were a criminal in the UK with $5000 to spend, I could have myself a nice Soviet submachine gun or any handgun of my choice.
“All of the weapons were Russian-made Baikal self-loading gas handguns, blank-firing weapons, which can be sold legally for about £100 in some European countries.”
As written, this makes absolutely no sense. Baikal makes CO2 operated self-loading BB/pellet guns. I can’t even begin to decipher what kind of modifications this doofus made to convert them to “real” guns unless they’re now glorified zip guns.
I hate it when they let technically incompetent people write new articles.
Now you can't have that. Why, with the technical details that would provide the necessary information so any competent schoolboy would be able to turn one out in shop class. No, better to keep them uninformed.
Never lose your ignorance; you can never regain it!
I simply must steal that phrase for my new tagline.
Enjoy; I swiped it off the ‘net someplace!
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