Firearms gang jailed for selling guns across UK

A gang who sold illegal firearms and ammunition across the UK has been jailed.

Andre Parris, 28, oversaw the group's operations in Hertfordshire and led fellow members Ricky Turner, Andrew Wilson, Paul Aldridge and Niall Curley.

Police said Parris made "desperate attempts" to flee the country after officers found 34 guns at Turner's home in Stevenage.

The defendants were jailed for between 10 years and 16 years each for their role, at Cambridge Crown Court.

It followed another gang being jailed in January for their role in producing the guns and ammunition.

Paris and the four other defendants collected the illegal goods and sold them to gangs and drugs suppliers across the UK, including in Glasgow, Liverpool and London.

Reacting to their jail terms, Det Ch Insp Steve Dowty said: "We have significantly disrupted the supply of firearms to other criminals, making our communities safer as a result of this operation."

All five defendants pleaded guilty to two offences of conspiring to sell firearms and received the following sentences:

• Parris, of Bedford Road, Hitchin, was jailed for 15 years and nine months
• Turner, 29, of Ascot Crescent, Stevenage, was jailed for 12 years
• Wilson, 53, of Kimberley, Letchworth Garden City, was jailed for 12 years
• Aldridge, 49, formerly of Wansbeck Close, Stevenage, was jailed for 12 years
• Curley, 42, of Ripon Road, Stevenage, was jailed for 10 years and nine months

An investigation into the group began in November 2023 after 83 guns were seized from another gang in Berkshire.

Messages recovered from the phones of those criminals showed they were in direct contact with Parris, who made regular arrangements to collect the guns.

Turner was then tasked with storing the firearms before passing them to "trusted couriers" for distribution, police said.

Among those couriers were Wilson, Aldridge and Curley, who all shifted the guns across the country.

Detectives from the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit (ERSOU) arrested all five men in a series of coordinated arrests across two days.

They found 34 firearms in Turner's home, stored in individual zip lock bags and a taped box secured inside bubble wrap.

Search teams also found 340 rounds of ammunition, along with more than £1,000 in cash and Class A drugs.

Curley and Aldridge were apprehended the same day after officers saw them delivering what they believed to be a gun.

Wilson was later arrested during a traffic stop, with police finding a firearm in a bag and seven rounds of ammunition in his car.

The following day, Parris was arrested at London Heathrow Airport as he tried to flee to Barbados. Police said messages on his phone showed "desperate attempts" to escape in the aftermath of his associates being detained.

Det Ch Insp Dowty, of ERSOU, said: "This gang paid no regard to the impact their actions were causing to communities across the country and were purely motivated by profit."

He vowed officers would continue to "ensure that criminals face the consequences" of illegal activity.

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