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Four men and a woman have today been jailed for a total of 45 years for their roles in the manufacture and supply of illegal firearms and ammunition.

Aaron Murray and Uzair Patel were arrested in Bishops Avenue, Newham, on June 16 last year after officers found a 9mm self-loading pistol in the footwell of the minicab they were travelling in.

Patel was also found to be in possession of a bottle of ammonia.

An investigation found that Murray, 28, of Witley Point, Wandsworth, was buying old weapons and reactivating them at a workshop.

Bartec Pawlowski, who owned the workshop, was later arrested after it was found the group were using his skills from the Polish army to reactive guns.

Judge Graham Arran said Pawlowski, who denied the charges against him saying he was under duress, was recruited because he was “in debt and perhaps frequently drunk”.

“You were not acting under duress or pressure from any other person,” the judge added.

As detectives probed the manufacturing of the weapons, officers found Ishamael Brown, who was behind bars at Rochester Prison, and his partner Caitlin Adams were also involved.

Brown was found to be using an illegal mobile phone from his cell to source the weapons and sell them onwards to the criminal underworld.

Judge Arran, sitting at Harrow Crown Court, said Brown was the “leading light” in the operation.

Adams, mother to Brown’s six-year-old child, then collected the deactivated weapons from across the country and delivered them to the workshop for them to be reactivated.

Judge Arran said Adams became involved in the scheme because she was “attracted by the apparent glamour of firearms and their illegality”.

Between January and June last year, more than 40 guns, including an AK-47 style assault rifle were sourced by the gang.

Police said only eight reactivated guns linked to the group had been found.

A sixth person – Ehsen Abdul-Razak, who was also serving at HMP Rochester – was also found to be using an illegal mobile phone from his cell and “acted as a middleman, brokering the deal between Murray and Patel”, Judge Arran said.

Sentencing, the judge said: “The conspiracy was in fact a simple one. It involved the acquisition of de-activated and therefore legal firearms and reactivating them.

“The reactivated firearms were test fired. The test firings were filmed and those films must have been intended for promotional use.

“The firearms were then sold on into the criminal world.”

Brown was today jailed for 12 years after previously pleading guilty to conspiracy to transfer prohibited weapons. His girlfriend, Adams of Campshill Road, Lewisham, was found guilty of conspiracy to transfer prohibited weapons and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Pawlowski, 42, of Thornsett Road, Wandsworth, was also found guilty of conspiracy to transfer prohibited weapons and sentenced to a total of 13 years imprisonment.

Patel, 28, of Abbey Road, Newham, and Abdul-Razak, 19, both pleaded guilty to the same charge and were each jailed for five years.

Murray, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transfer prohibited weapons, will be sentenced at a date in March pending psychiatric reports.

Detective Constable Claire Gentles, from the Trident and Area Crime Command, said: "The firearms and ammunition this gang converted had the potential to cause great harm on the streets of London and there is no doubt that the Capital is a safer place as a result of the network being dismantled.

“The sentencing of Caitlin Adams should serve as a warning to others of the grave consequences of storing and transporting guns for others."