The Times
London, UK
July 29, 2006
Jail for four who plotted to supply gangs with guns
By Russell Jenkins
FOUR men who plotted to supply Manchester’s underworld with guns and ammunition smuggled from Eastern Europe were jailed for up to 18 years yesterday.
The consignment of 30 self-loading pistols, silencers and up to 1,220 rounds of live ammunition were hidden in a secret compartment of a Volvo car. It was one of the largest hauls of illicit imported weapons seized in the UK.
Judge Bernard Lever, at Manchester Crown Court, said that the weapons would have been sold to gangsters who would have used them to fight drug wars, commit murder and cause mayhem in our cities.
Marius Renke, 27, a Lithuanian, was the senior conspirator who put the weapons in the car. The Volvo had been rebuilt, with its floor pan raised and a secret compartment welded underneath the two front seats. He was jailed for 18 years.
Richard Saltmarsh, 27, a drug dealer from Coventry who was described as the plot’s mastermind in this country, has already been sentenced to 20 years for conspiracy to import the weapons.
James Parker, 24, also of Coventry, said to have been the key contact with the Lithuanians, and Dawson Wray, 31, of Eccles, near Manchester, said by the prosecution to have been responsible for its onward distribution, each admitted conspiracy to import firearms. Parker was jailed for 13½years and Wray for 11½ years.
Anton Vaisnoras, 26, a colleague of Renke and a fellow Lithuanian, who acted as translator, was jailed for 14 years.
The court was told that Renke duped a Lithuanian national into driving the car from Klaipeda, in Lithuania, through Poland to Cuxhaven in Germany, from where it arrived in Britain on a ferry to Harwich. It was driven to Coventry and onwards to Manchester.
The consignment was tracked by Greater Manchester Police and the National Crime Squad after a tip-off, and Renke, Wray and Parker were arrested by armed officers as they tried to remove the guns at a garage in Stretford, south Manchester. All the weapons were loaded and some were cocked ready for use.
Nicholas Clarke, QC, for the prosecution, told the court that the gang used the code word “spaghetti” for guns in its text message traffic.
One message from Vaisnoras, retrieved from Parker’s phone, offered the guns for £1,000 each. It read: “Hellou (sic) my friend, How are you? Walter 9mm all complek, brand new in oil 1000£. That are good price for spageti. Give me a coll, please.”
Mr Clarke said: “This method of concealment and importation of firearms has not been seen before in the United Kingdom. The recovery of 30 real firearms and 1,220 rounds of factory-made ammunition make this case one of the largest single seizures of firearms imported into the UK.
“This job needed finance and the criminal contacts that would provide a ready outlet for such a large number of guns. Such importations would not be made unless there were potential customers ready to buy the firearms.”
Mr Clarke said that between April 1, 2003, and April 5 this year 128 people had been killed or injured by the discharge of firearms in the Greater Manchester area alone. “If these guns had been supplied into the criminal underworld the only possible outcome would be that someone would either be targeted and shot directly or, as so often happened, an innocent member of the public would be caught in the crossfire,” he said.
Judge Lever said told the defendants that he was satisfied that the guns had no legitimate or lawful use. “They were for gangsters and the underworld to use in assassinations or drug wars or extortion or illegal enforcement,” he said.
“Those, like you, who import on a significant scale their guns and ammunition, whether from Eastern Europe or elsewhere, do so at their peril.”
London, UK
July 29, 2006
Jail for four who plotted to supply gangs with guns
By Russell Jenkins
FOUR men who plotted to supply Manchester’s underworld with guns and ammunition smuggled from Eastern Europe were jailed for up to 18 years yesterday.
The consignment of 30 self-loading pistols, silencers and up to 1,220 rounds of live ammunition were hidden in a secret compartment of a Volvo car. It was one of the largest hauls of illicit imported weapons seized in the UK.
Judge Bernard Lever, at Manchester Crown Court, said that the weapons would have been sold to gangsters who would have used them to fight drug wars, commit murder and cause mayhem in our cities.
Marius Renke, 27, a Lithuanian, was the senior conspirator who put the weapons in the car. The Volvo had been rebuilt, with its floor pan raised and a secret compartment welded underneath the two front seats. He was jailed for 18 years.
Richard Saltmarsh, 27, a drug dealer from Coventry who was described as the plot’s mastermind in this country, has already been sentenced to 20 years for conspiracy to import the weapons.
James Parker, 24, also of Coventry, said to have been the key contact with the Lithuanians, and Dawson Wray, 31, of Eccles, near Manchester, said by the prosecution to have been responsible for its onward distribution, each admitted conspiracy to import firearms. Parker was jailed for 13½years and Wray for 11½ years.
Anton Vaisnoras, 26, a colleague of Renke and a fellow Lithuanian, who acted as translator, was jailed for 14 years.
The court was told that Renke duped a Lithuanian national into driving the car from Klaipeda, in Lithuania, through Poland to Cuxhaven in Germany, from where it arrived in Britain on a ferry to Harwich. It was driven to Coventry and onwards to Manchester.
The consignment was tracked by Greater Manchester Police and the National Crime Squad after a tip-off, and Renke, Wray and Parker were arrested by armed officers as they tried to remove the guns at a garage in Stretford, south Manchester. All the weapons were loaded and some were cocked ready for use.
Nicholas Clarke, QC, for the prosecution, told the court that the gang used the code word “spaghetti” for guns in its text message traffic.
One message from Vaisnoras, retrieved from Parker’s phone, offered the guns for £1,000 each. It read: “Hellou (sic) my friend, How are you? Walter 9mm all complek, brand new in oil 1000£. That are good price for spageti. Give me a coll, please.”
Mr Clarke said: “This method of concealment and importation of firearms has not been seen before in the United Kingdom. The recovery of 30 real firearms and 1,220 rounds of factory-made ammunition make this case one of the largest single seizures of firearms imported into the UK.
“This job needed finance and the criminal contacts that would provide a ready outlet for such a large number of guns. Such importations would not be made unless there were potential customers ready to buy the firearms.”
Mr Clarke said that between April 1, 2003, and April 5 this year 128 people had been killed or injured by the discharge of firearms in the Greater Manchester area alone. “If these guns had been supplied into the criminal underworld the only possible outcome would be that someone would either be targeted and shot directly or, as so often happened, an innocent member of the public would be caught in the crossfire,” he said.
Judge Lever said told the defendants that he was satisfied that the guns had no legitimate or lawful use. “They were for gangsters and the underworld to use in assassinations or drug wars or extortion or illegal enforcement,” he said.
“Those, like you, who import on a significant scale their guns and ammunition, whether from Eastern Europe or elsewhere, do so at their peril.”
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