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Transatlantic sting thwarted gun conspiracy, QC tells court
Lethal handguns were smuggled into Yorkshire from the US in a major criminal enterprise which saw weapons dismantled and hidden in hollowed-out electrical goods.
Self-loading Glock pistols, normally used only by police, were bought in Texas and shipped to the region in an operation involving 15 Yorkshire-based conspirators, a court heard yesterday.
The group succeeded in smuggling 12 pistols into the country and wanted 18 in total, but the plot was foiled by a transatlantic undercover sting carried out by US authorities and West Yorkshire Police.
Peter Moulson QC, prosecuting, told a jury at Bradford Crown Court that the pistols had a “lethal capacity” and some of them remained unaccounted for.
“Obviously the whereabouts...of those imported Glock pistols are extremely important,” he said. “The police have not found all of those weapons which were imported into the UK through this scheme.”
The criminal operation began in September 2009 when Bradford-based conspirator Mohammed Tariq agreed to buy a Taser from Texas man Scotdale Liburd.
Liburd, who had advertised the weapon on the auction website eBay, assured Tariq by email that the Taser would be labelled as a “shaving razor”, to which the Bradford man replied: “Please activate it for me so it works right away... I will buy more item.”
In March last year, the two men exchanged messages after Tariq asked Liburd to provide a Glock, particularly requesting him to “send it in pieces”.
Mr Moulson said Tariq and his associates, Atique Arif and Mudasser Iqbal, went on to “recruit” others who would help them smuggle pistols.
The weapons were sent by Liburd, who himself recruited two women in the US, Christine Pavlock and Yvette Trevino, to buy them from gun outlets in Texas.
Mr Moulson said the main players in the conspiracy set up a “small network of receivers” in Bradford and Leeds who accepted the parcels when they were delivered.
Two such “receivers” were Jamie Jefferson and his mother Debbie, who had both admitted their involvement, the jury heard.
Mr Moulson said officers from the UK Border Agency “lifted the lid” on the conspiracy in July last year when they intercepted three Bradford-bound parcels at East Midlands Airport.
“Each individual parcel did not have the required parts to create one single working gun,” the prosecutor said. “However, when all the parts were combined, they were the exact parts required to make two fully operational 9mm calibre G26 Glock self-loading pistols.”
The jury was told that the conspiracy resumed even after its main players had been arrested and charged with gun smuggling.
While on bail awaiting trial, Arif and Tariq restarted their operation and contacted Liburd again, although by that point, unbeknown to them, the American had begun working with the US authorities.
As Arif and Tariq requested more pistols, their telephone conversations were recorded and details were passed to West Yorkshire Police.
The court heard that Tariq, Arif, Iqbal, the Jeffersons, and three other Bradford men – Sakawat Shah, Mohsin Hussain and Feroz Khan – had all pleaded guilty to firearms smuggling charges before the trial began.
But the jury was told it would have to give verdicts on seven defendants who deny involvement in the conspiracy.
Shauna Kilkenny, 19, of Haycliffe Lane, Bradford; her mother Andrea Burton, 33, of the same address; Shazia Hussain, 23, of Pannal Street, Bradford; Raees Khan, 33, of Folkestone Street, Bradford; Akbar Sultan, 24, of Baring Avenue, Bradford; Michelle Cheung, 19, of Gainsborough Avenue, Leeds; and Damian Waite, 25, whose address cannot be published for legal reasons, each deny conspiring to evade the prohibition of importation of firearms.
The trial continues.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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