Five people face long jail sentences for smuggling largest haul of automatic weapons ever taken by police on the UK mainland

A British crime gang bought the largest haul of automatic weapons ever detected by police on the UK mainland from the same source in eastern Europe as terrorists behind the Paris attacks of January 2015, it can be revealed.

The 22 Kalashnikov-style assault rifles and nine machine guns were described by police from the National Crime Agency as “mass casualty weapons”. They were intercepted in an operation led by the NCA after being smuggled from eastern Europe to France and across the Channel in a motor boat which docked in Kent last August.

On Thursday, Harry Shilling, 25 and Michael Defraine, 30, two leading members of the organised crime gang based in Kent, were convicted of smuggling the firearms and conspiracy to possess firearms with intent to endanger life after a trial at the Old Bailey in London. Three other members of the group pleaded guilty to their part in the plot. All five face possible life imprisonment when they are sentenced on 13 May.

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Duncan Atkinson, prosecuting, told the central criminal court in London that the firearms smuggled into the UK by the gang were capable of “causing carnage on a terrifying scale”.

The detection of what is the biggest haul of military style assault rifles and submachine guns ever on the UK mainland exposed links to the terror attacks in Paris which can only now be reported. The NCA said the stash of firearms was purchased from the same Slovakian gun store as those used in the Charlie Hebdo and kosher supermarket attacks by Islamist extremists in Paris in January last year.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Harry Shilling, left, and Michael Defraine. Photograph: National Crime Agency

Sold legally by AFG Security in Slovakia as deactivated acoustic expansion weapons, they were illegally reactivated by hammering out a metal pin which had been placed in the barrel, transforming them into lethal weapons.



The shadowy trade out of western Slovakia is the subject of multiple criminal and anti-terror investigations in Europe, including investigations into the Islamist terrorist attacks in Paris last November that killed 130 people.

Gangland boss Shilling smuggled the haul of powerful automatic weapons into the UK after making multiple trips last year with his right-hand man, Defraine, to eastern Europe, including Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.



Rob Lewin, head of specialist operations for the NCA, said: “They were very similar weapons to those used in the Charlie Hebdo attacks. It was the same supply route and same methodology of deactivating and reactivating the weapons. It was the same source in the same country.”

British police and anti-terror experts have long feared the nexus between organised criminals and terrorists could be the source of firearms used for a Paris-style attack in the UK. Lewin said: “We can only speculate that some of these weapons would have been sold to whoever had the means to pay the asking price. I have no doubt that together we have protected the public and saved lives.”

Evidence of Islamist terrorists using criminal contacts in the UK to source weapons was revealed last month when Tarik Hassane was convicted of conspiring to kill on the streets of London. His cell sourced a firearm, silencer and ammunition through a London criminal contact.

Shilling and his gang brought the weapons into Britain via France by hiding them in a motor-cruiser, the Albernina, which docked in Kent last August. They were arrested on 11 August after unloading the guns into a waiting van at Cuxton marina in Kent. The haul included more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition, two silencers and 58 magazines.



The NCA put the gang under surveillance after receiving intelligence they had plans to illegally smuggle firearms into the country. BlackBerry phones fitted with PGP (pretty good privacy) encryption software were sent to the Canadian mounties to be decoded, in order to intercept messages between the men.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ammunition seized during the raid. Photograph: National Crime Agency/PA

In one message sent by Shilling following what he thought was the successful purchase and transfer of the weapons, he wrote to an accomplice: “We now officially gangsters.” To which his associate replied: “Fucking nice one.” But armed police moved in to arrest the gang shortly after the weapons were transferred from the boat to a Renault van.

Lewin said the size of the haul was shocking. “This seizure of automatic weapons was the largest ever ... on the UK mainland. These are hugely powerful firearms ... We seized four times as much firepower in this job as was used in the recent Paris events last Christmas.”



After the Bataclan and Stade de France terror attacks last November in Paris, EU officials rushed to close the loophole which allowed the weapons to be sold legally as acoustic expansion weapons in Europe.

A new directive going through the European parliament aims to standardise deactivation procedures across Europe, introduce a ban on collectors owning deactivated category-A weapons, such as machine guns, and ending civilian use of semi-automatic weapons.

• This article was amended on 22 April 2016. An earlier version referred in the first paragraph and subheading to “UK police” where “police on the UK mainland” was meant.