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A city bar said to have played host to dangerous criminals was shut down for good after 46kg of drugs and a loaded gun were uncovered.

Twenty-three 2kg bags of amphetamine were found stuffed inside furniture at the BadFormat venue, in Trueman Street.

A loaded pistol and a silencer were also discovered in a black bag beneath a table following a police raid last month.

Now councillors have revoked the bar’s premises licence, effectively shutting it down.

A licensing committee meeting was told that police entered the bar in the early hours of July 28 after hearing music blaring from inside, despite the shutters being down.

Minutes of the meeting, held yesterday, revealed: “The shutters were down and music was coming from inside.

Two females were seen leaving the premises from a side door.

“There were half a dozen people inside the premises and there was a strong smell of cannabis and evidence of drug use. There was no one from the premises present.

“The premises was searched, under a table in a black bag there was a loaded pistol and a silencer.

The premises were locked down.”

A fuller search the next day revealed the secret stash of Class B drugs inside the seating.

The meeting heard that the bar had “an obvious link to criminality” and that while the licensee of the bar had offered to surrender the licence, police applied for it to be removed for good.

Following the hearing, Supt Mark Wiggins told the ECHO: "Merseyside Police recovered a substantial quantity of amphetamine and a firearm from the premises and it is clear that members of the criminal fraternity were using the premises to meet.

“Merseyside Police is committed to tackling drug and gun crime and the message to licensees and owners of licensed premises is clear if you permit your premises to be used by criminals and crimes are committed on your premises we will find out.”

Ten people have so far been arrested over the find and a 15-year-old boy from Woolton has been charged with possession of a firearm.