Imported guns bought online for just £50 flooding Britain’s streets, LBC investigation finds
Britain's streets "flooded" with weapons being imported.
Thousands of imported guns bought for as little as £50 online are flooding Britain’s streets, an LBC investigation has discovered.
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The firearms - imported from Turkey and Italy as ‘Blank Firing Guns’ - are marketed online as ‘ideal for props in films and plays’, but they can be converted into deadly weapons within minutes.
The price online ranges from £50 to £400.
Police say they are aware of ‘gun factories’ in major cities, which convert the firearms for a fee.
Sources have told LBC that the weapons, known amongst the criminal underworld as ‘converted blanks’, are becoming the most popular type of firearm used by organised crime gangs because of the availability and price.
Converted - or activated - guns have been used in several murders in the UK in the past two years, and the Home Office and National Crime Agency (NCA) are banning several popular brands which have been flooded into the UK from Europe.
LBC was given exclusive access to the Metropolitan Police’s Proactive Firearms Team, which targets serious organised crime and high-level criminals known for carrying and using guns.
We joined them on a raid of a dangerous ‘county lines’ drug dealer. They found drugs worth up to £250,000 and a converted blank firearm. The weapon was one of the banned Turkish models.
The suspect was later arrested for firearms and drug offences.
Detective Chief Inspector James Tipple, who heads up the specialist unit, said: “This brand has been identified as readily convertible, so this is illegal. Previously, you could have bought this for £100.”
I asked him: “And this could be easily converted into a deadly weapon in minutes?”
DCI Tipple replied: “Yes, by someone who knows what they are doing.”
The Proactive Firearms Team has taken more than 300 firearms off the streets of London in the last year.
DCI Tipple added: “Our team is relentless in taking all firearms off our streets, not just converted firearms, and we target the people who we suspect are involved in gun and drug crime.”
The NCA and Home Office received more than 6,000 readily converted weapons from Turkey last year in an amnesty after the brands were banned.
Last week another amnesty began after the Italian brand, BRUNI, was banned by UK authorities.
LBC spoke to a gun expert who knows how to convert the guns. The man, who we are calling Anthony, said: “It takes no more than half an hour for someone who understands firearms to the turn them into a live firing weapon.
“You can easily get these guns online and being marketed for innocent purposes, but really it’s the criminal gangs that are purchasing these firearms and turning them into deadly weapons."
