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3w ago

East Midlands 'Assassination Kit' Ring Leaders Jailed for Over 60 Years

Judges imposed more than 60 years in prison after uncovering a garden workshop that converted blank-firing handguns into silenced weapons loaded with expanding ammunition

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Overview

  • Nottingham Crown Court found Gary Hardy and Steven Houston guilty after a four-month trial, following guilty pleas from Ronald Knowles and Jason Hill.
  • Police seized assassination kits containing threaded handguns, silencers, magazines and converted ammunition from eight locations across the UK, tracing at least 33 firearms to the Alfreton operation.
  • Detective Chief Inspector Mark Adas warned that each kit was designed for discreet, close-range killings and that the seized rounds suggested the potential for up to 80 additional packages.
  • Steven Houston received a 25-year term for supplying the weapons and Jason Hill was handed an extra four years on top of his life sentence for murder.
  • The sentences dismantle one of the largest home-based gun conversion factories in the East Midlands and remove more than 800 rounds of potential ammunition from criminal use.