Gun running gang convicted after largest seizure of automatic weapons in UK

A British crime boss bought the UK’s largest stash of automatic weapons from the same underworld source who supplied the terrorists behind the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris, it can now be reported.
Harry Shilling was the mastermind behind a gang which smuggled 22 assault rifles, nine sub-machine guns and 1,500 rounds of ammunition in to the UK.

Harry Shilling Credit: PA

 
The “evil” cargo had a street value of more than £100,000 and could have found its way in to the hands of terrorists and other criminals if sold on.
Shilling, 25, who was likened to the shadowy underworld boss Keyser Söze from the film Usual Suspects, and his lieutenants bought the weapons in the early half of last year on the black market in Slovakia, where they had been reactivated.
The same underworld source supplied similar weapons to the Islamist fanatics who slaughtered 12 people at the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris in January of that year.

Skorpion machine pistols were among the haul

A loophole meant the weapons could be legitimately bought as supposedly deactivated “acoustic expansion weapons” from shops in Slovakia.
The criminal source then reactivated them by simply hammering out a metal pin which had been placed in the barrel and they were live again.

(Clockwise) Richard Rye, Christopher Owen, David Payne and Michael Defraine. Credit: NCA/PA

Rob Lewin, head of specialist operations for the National Crime Agency, said: “These were very similar weapons to those used in the Charlie Hebdo attacks.
“It was the same supply route and same methodology of deactivating and reactivating the weapons.
“It was the same source in the same country.”

Police officers arrest John Smale, and Christopher Owen, after they were caught offloading more than £100,000 worth of Eastern European guns from a boat into a van Credit: PA

The weapons Shilling brought in to the UK were 22 Czech-made VZ58 automatic rifles – the equivalent of an AK47 – and nine Skorpion machine pistols along with 1,500 rounds of ammunition and two silencers.
Both can fire 800 bullets a minute.
It is the largest single seizure of automatic weapons ever seen in the UK and more than four times the fire power used in last November’s Paris attacks, which left 130 dead.
Independent firearms expert Neil Wildman said such guns are cheap, easily obtained and readily brought across Europe's boarders to countries like France.
Although the gang had no links to extremism and planned to bury most of the haul for future criminal use, police warned the danger was if they were sold on, they could end up anywhere, including in the hands of terrorists.

Police officers offering crime boss Harry Shilling, 23, first aid after he collapsed following his arrest.  Credit: NCA/PA 

Paul Morris, operations manager of the armed operation units at the NCA, said: “It goes without saying that there are concerns for all of us with these on the criminal market.
“Once they sell them on, where are they going to end up? It is very likely you have lost control of the weapons in the UK.”
The law in Slovakia was changed in July last year, in the wake of Charlie Hebdo, and so called acoustic expansion weapons can no longer be bought legally.
Shilling’s gang smuggled the arsenal in from Boulogne in France in August last year on a yacht they bought.
They were bought for between £120 and £320 each but could have been sold for up to £4,000 each.
However, the NCA had been monitoring the gang since March after a tip off from Kent police and officers were lying in wait when the yacht returned.
Shilling’s second in command Michael Defraine, 30, from Bexleyheath, was responsible for loading the weapons in France while Richard Rye, 24, from Swanley, was the link man in the UK between Shilling and the rest of the gang.

The weapons came with more 1,500 rounds of ammunition

David Payne, 43, sailed the yacht back and moored the haul in Cuxton Marina in Rochester.
Christopher Owen, 30, unloaded the weapons shortly before police moved in.
When the guns arrived in the UK, Shilling emailed Defraine saying: “We now officially gangsters.”
Defraine replied: "Proper heavy and armed to the teeth no one wants beef fam."
Shilling also exchanged messages with a mystery contact "B" to arrange the onward supply of the guns.
Mr Lewin said: “In a criminal market, hard work to get firearms and ammunition in the same place. So if have for sale these weapons with ammunition then you are in a very strong position.
“For the agency and law enforcement in general, this was a very significant case. It was probably the biggest seizure we have seen on the mainland of these types of weapons.”
Payne, who lived with Jenny Arthy on a houseboat in Cuxton, was arrested at the marina along with Ms Arthy, John Smale, 58, from Rochester, and Owen. Shilling, Defraine and Rye were arrested shortly after leaving a DIY store where they had bought equipment to bury the haul.

Harry Shilling's gang smuggled Czech-made automatic weapons

Shilling, 25, and Defraine, 30, were found guilty after a trial at the Old Bailey but Arthy, 42, and Smale, 58, were cleared of all charges.
Rye, 24, Payne, 43, and Owen, 30, had previously pleaded guilty to their roles.
High level security surrounded the trial with armed officers allowed inside the historic court house for the first time in six years and the public gallery was arranged so the jury could not be seen.
During the trial, prosecutor Duncan Atkinson QC described the haul as “lethal weapons capable of unleashing carnage on a terrifying scale”.
Mr Morris said: “It is a very common theme in organised crime gangs that they will bury commodities or guns or cash and they will go back to that stash.
“They then have access to these for themselves and their own gang if they need to enforce violence.
“Also for trusted associates and other gangs, there is obviously financial gain for them to either sell them or loan them out.
“Or if they have used them and they are no longer a ‘clean’ weapon, then put them on the criminal market and they can continue to make a bit of money on the side.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/21/gun-running-gang-convicted-after-largest-seizure-of-automatic-we/


Good grief, they could have cause mayhem!