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| Men jailed over assassin kit guns | Men jailed over assassin kit guns |
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| Seven men have been jailed for their part in a vast gun conspiracy across the UK. | |
| The men, from Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, Merseyside and Essex, helped supply an "assassin's armoury" of guns and ammunition to gangsters in the UK. | The men, from Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, Merseyside and Essex, helped supply an "assassin's armoury" of guns and ammunition to gangsters in the UK. |
| The Russian-made Baikal handguns were brought over from Lithuania and made into assassin kits with silencers and bullets before being sold for £1,700. | The Russian-made Baikal handguns were brought over from Lithuania and made into assassin kits with silencers and bullets before being sold for £1,700. |
| The men were sentenced to more than 86 years at Manchester Crown Court. | The men were sentenced to more than 86 years at Manchester Crown Court. |
| Kaleem Akhtar, 30, of Chorlton, Manchester, was found guilty in May of conspiracy to possess firearms and ammunition with intent to endanger life. He has been sentenced to 20 years in jail. | |
| He was the salesman who arranged for the guns to be shipped out to criminals. Madasser Ali , 30, of Bradford, West Yorkshire, was the lynchpin of the conspiracy, working with Akhtar to forge links with contacts and customers. | |
| He pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy to possess firearms and ammunition with intent to endanger life. He was jailed for 18 years. | |
| Paul Wilson, 37,of Southport, was one of Akhtar's customers. He also pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge in May and has been sentenced to 11 and a half years imprisonment. | |
| Asaid Saleem, 27, from Trafford, was a friend of Akhtar's, who employed him to package the guns into the assassin's kits, and transport them to suppliers. | |
| Saleem pleaded guilty in late 2007 to possessing firearms and ammunition with intent to endanger life, possessing prohibited weapons and ammunition and possessing ammunition without a firearm certificate. it is vital that the courts do everything within their powers to curtail gun-running activities. Judge Goldstone | |
| He also pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge in April. He was sentenced to a total of 10 years. | |
| Lithuanian brothers Agnius and Edgaras Malcevas, who both live in Essex, were responsible for driving the guns up to Manchester to meet with Madasser Ali. | |
| Agnius, 26, pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge, and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life. He was jailed for 12 years. | |
| The judge recommended that he be deported to Lithuania at the end of his sentence. | |
| Edgaras, 40, pleaded guilty to possessing a prohibited weapon and possession of ammunition without a certificate. He was sentenced to five years' imprisonment. | |
| The final member of the conspiracy was the first to be arrested. Michael Peake , 44, from Liverpool, pleaded guilty last year to possessing firearms with intent to endanger life, and possession of a prohibited weapon. | |
| He had been employed by Wilson to drive to Manchester to collect the guns from Akhtar. He was today jailed for nine years. | |
| Judge Goldstone, in passing sentence, said: "For those of us who live and work in Greater Manchester, and who read on a daily basis about the extent to which lives are ruled and ruined by those who carry and use guns with impunity, it is vital that the courts do everything within their powers to curtail gun-running activities." | |
| All of the weapons were originally self-loading, blank-firing gas handgunswhich can be sold legally for around #100 in some European countries. | |
| But every one had been expertly stripped down and re-barrelled, converting themto fire 9mm bullets, as accurate and powerful as factory-made weapons. | |
| Police seized 29 Baikal guns supplied by Akhtar and others during operations inManchester alone, along with 856 9mm bullets. | |
| Another 27 from the same source have turned up across the country, but the 56seized is "only a proportion" of the guns distributed by the gang. In the UK Baikals were first noted by police in 2003 - but now more than 300have been seized. |