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Gun smuggler jailed for 30 years | Gun smuggler jailed for 30 years |
(1 day later) | |
The mastermind behind one of the biggest gun smuggling operations in the UK has been jailed for 30 years at Manchester Crown Court. | |
Michael Sammon, 49, was the head of a gang which converted hundreds of blank-firing guns into deadly weapons. | |
One of those firearms killed 12-year-old schoolgirl Kamilah Peniston. | One of those firearms killed 12-year-old schoolgirl Kamilah Peniston. |
Sammon, of no fixed address, was found guilty at Preston Crown Court earlier this week of several charges, including conspiracy to import firearms. | Sammon, of no fixed address, was found guilty at Preston Crown Court earlier this week of several charges, including conspiracy to import firearms. |
He was also convicted of conspiracy to possess firearms with intent to endanger life, conspiracy to manufacture firearms, conspiracy to possess firearms and possessing false passports. | |
The alarm flare guns were bought cheaply on open sale in Germany and brought to Ancoats, Manchester, where they were modified to fire live ammunition and sold to criminals. | |
'Gradiose plans' | |
More than 270 of the weapons were smuggled by ferry - and then via post - between April 2004 and September 2005. | |
Sammon acted as financier and had "grandiose" plans to expand the scheme and set up another factory in Spain, the court heard. | |
Buyers from Liverpool, Newcastle, Manchester, Yorkshire and Scotland lined up to buy the guns, which were sold for £500 each, or for up to £750 with ammunition included. | |
They were purchased in Germany for just 50 euros (£43). | |
About half of the firearms have been recovered, but around 100 remain untraced. | |
Sentencing Manchester-born Sammon, Judge Martin Steiger QC said many of the guns had been used in shooting incidents, including at least two fatalities. | |
He undoubtedly was the head of this sinister commercial operation Judge Steiger QC | |
Five men were sentenced in 2006 for their part in the racket, but Sammon remained at large until June 2008. | |
He used two fake passports and changed his appearance several times before he was finally traced to a caravan park in Southsea, Hampshire. | |
Judge Steiger QC also sentenced the other gang members in 2006 and described them then as "merchants of death" - a comment he said still stood today. | |
He added: "It is clear that Michael Sammon is a man of considerable commercial acumen and experience. | |
"He undoubtedly was the head of this sinister commercial operation." | |
Sammon disappeared in 1997 when he was convicted of a serious fraud after he duped a number of business creditors out of several million pounds. | |
He was sentenced to four years in jail in his absence. | |
About half of the firearms were recovered but about 100 are untraced | |
Sammon managed to remain undetected for 11 years despite owning a number of shops selling tools in Derby, across the Midlands and more recently in Blackpool, under the false name of John Eugene McDonagh. | |
His girlfriend, Fiona McIntyre, 42, of Melville Road, Southsea, was jailed for 30 months after she was found guilty of assisting an offender and possessing a false passport. | |
She had been in a two-year relationship with the defendant and helped to hide Sammon at Southsea Leisure Park while he was on the run. | |
Henry Grunwald QC, representing Sammon, had argued that there was no evidence to show the defendant was the leader of the gang and that his role had been overstated. | |
Mr Grunwald said his client wished to say he "deeply regretted" involving McIntyre in the passport scam. | |
Det Sgt Jim Gray, of Greater Manchester Police's Xcalibre organised crime unit, said: "He (Sammon) was among some of the most wanted criminals in Britain and this gun-smuggling racket which brought the misery of guns to many people could not have operated to the extent it did without him funding it." |
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