A Manchester man has been jailed after he was found with a loaded gun, a makeshift grenade and a colossal amount of ammunition stuffed into his pocket after a van he was driving in Newton Heath was stopped by police
Officerd from GMP’s Specialist Operations Team stopped a Volkswagen Caddy van on Oldham Road near to the junction of Droylsden Road on the 30th January as a result of an investigation into organised crime, in which Joseph Grey aged 54 of Hopgarth Walk was identified as a key suspect.
While being searched by armed officers, Grey made admissions that he had a grenade and a gun in his possession.
Bomb disposal officers were called to carry out a controlled explosion of the device and the road was shut for some time.
The miniature gun – a Turkish EKOL Arda 4mm Rimfire Flobert revolver – was recovered from Grey with more than 150 rounds of ammunition in his pocket.
The grenade, which was destroyed at the scene, was an improvised device with what was believed to be a firing mechanism from a military smoke grenade.
As part of the same operation, a search at Grey’s flat found nine kilograms of cannabis, which is estimated to be a street value of between £49,500 and £67,000 and four kilograms of amphetamines with a higher than usual purity, which is estimated to yield between £40,000 and £100,000 depending on further adulteration.
Today Grey was jailed for eight years after pleading guilty to Possession of a prohibited weapon Possession of a firearm and of ammunition with the intent to endanger life and counts of possession with the intent to supply Class B drugs
Detective Inspector Tony Norman of GMP’s Serious and Organised Crime Group, said: “Had we not stopped and arrested Grey that day, who knows the devastation his armoury could have caused.
“The grenade itself was deemed too volatile for bomb disposal officers to fully examine it so it had to be destroyed straight away.
“It’s so important that we continue in our fight to take weapons and drugs off our streets but we simply cannot do this alone and heavily rely on information being passed onto us from the public.
“For anyone who is unsure whether they should contact us about crime in their area please, trust your instinct and make that call.
“We will never know what damage this could have caused and quite frankly, it’s something that’s not worth thinking about. Work with us to put people like Grey behind bars and make Greater Manchester a safer place.”
