Crime gang behind biggest gun-running plot ever seen in UK ran stash house from plush Ancoats development
manchestereveningnews.co.ukA crime gang responsible for the biggest gun running plot ever countered by UK law enforcement operated its main stash house from a plush Ancoats residential development.
A property in the Cotton Field Wharf plot at Ancoats Marina was rented out to store guns, ammunition, drugs and ‘vast’ amounts of cash.
Adrian Gonzalez, 33, the gangster in charge of the stash house, has now been jailed for 25 years. The gang’s ringleader, Omar Malik, was previously jailed for 38 years while four other conspirators were also handed lengthy prison sentences.
A judge at Manchester Crown Court said the gang were responsible for criminality on an ‘exceptional scale’. They were behind the supply of cocaine worth £70m, and sold 48 Skorpion machine pistols to other gangsters across the UK and Ireland. READ MORE: How cops busted EncroChat gang led by kingpin 'payyabills' responsible for biggest gun trafficking empire ever seen in UK “This trade in guns and ammunition, Mr Gonzalez, was described by an expert in this field as being amongst the very highest level of criminal firearm trafficking ever encountered by law enforcement in the United Kingdom,” Judge John Potter told Gonzalez, who he labelled a ‘determined’ and ‘professional criminal’. “You proved willing to be active in a trade, which on any view, causes misery to many within our communities.
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