Overview
- The court handed Faisal Razzaq a second life sentence on Thursday after he admitted leading a conspiracy to sell converted and prohibited firearms to gangs in London.
- Police built the case using covert surveillance placed inside Razzaq’s car that captured him discussing sales, threats to shoot to avoid arrest, and instructions for moving weapons.
- Investigators traced guns sold by Razzaq back to a conversion workshop run by Thomas McKenna, who was jailed earlier this year for turning blank‑firing guns into live pistols.
- Six co‑defendants received multi‑year prison terms for roles ranging from converting and storing weapons to acting as intermediaries, with sentences reflecting clear divisions of labour in the network.
- The case links Razzaq’s release on licence in 2017 after his 2006 manslaughter conviction to a wider problem of converted blank‑firing guns, and it signals intensified police efforts to disrupt supply chains that produce and distribute lethal firearms.