A man has been jailed for seven years for his connections to the gang who coined one of the largest firearms trafficking jobs in UK history
Michael Feeley aged 47 of The Deodar, Cramlington, has been sentenced to seven years in jail, after pleading guilty to two counts of possession of a firearm in relation to two Skorpion machine guns.
In 2020, police forces across the UK were handed hundreds of thousands of messages from a once encrypted messaging platform by the National Crime Agency, who, as part of Operation Venetic, had infiltrated the largest providers of secure, encrypted communications.
Encrochat was used like a criminal instant messaging service, with texts detailing all sorts of nefarious illegal dealings, and now police had access into the minds and daily lives of the criminals using this platform. But it wasn’t as simple task, criminals didn’t use their real names, they all went by an alias, known as a handle, meaning detectives had to trawl through these messages and attribute them to criminals across the UK.
This investigation began in 2020 when police in West Yorkshire located a sub machine gun and ammunition hidden under a pillow at an address in Beeston, Leeds, where a man called Kevin Dempsey lived.
Kevin Dempsey aged 50 was subsequently arrested, charged, and sentenced to 5 years in prison after pleading guilty to possession of a prohibited weapon and possession of ammunition.
The firearm and ammunition were sent off for forensic examination. The DNA results matched the gun to Michael Feeley, so much so, the forensic scientist stated it is one billion times more likely that the major DNA contributor was Feeley, than that of an unknown individual.
At the time, police were unaware of the Encrochat messages that would later link Feeley to their large scale GMP operation into firearms trafficking. When the connection was made, police were able to build a case against Feeley.
Once the encrypted messages were obtained by police, they could see that the firearm police had recovered in Dempsey’s case was one that had been sold by an OCG who were under investigation at the time as part of Operation Glassy.
Weeks later, GMP executed a warrant and recovered another Skorpion machine gun from an address in Stockport, which formed part of their recent conviction. Other significant finds included two black self-loading pistols, two Skorpion sub machine guns, a taser, and 1,013 rounds of ammunition. Michael Feeley’s DNA was recovered from a number of these items.
In January 2021, Feeley was stopped in his vehicle in Northumberland, where police checks showed he was outstanding wanted in Greater Manchester. A warrant was executed at his address in Cramlington, and during a search of his house police recovered a mobile phone; a handset similar to many of those who used the encrypted chat service.
When questioned, Feeley claimed he was not involved, he’d only ‘touched the guns’ when his friends were showing them to him. However, detectives and colleagues from the CPS had enough evidence to build a case which meant Feeley had little choice but to plead guilty.
Detective Constable Jon Shaw from GMP Serious Organised Crime Group said: “Our work doesn’t stop now just because we’ve convicted those responsible for selling these guns. Our investigation has already taken six deadly, military grade weapons and over 1,000 rounds of ammunition out of the hands of criminals, but we have several investigations ongoing into other OCGs linked to these weapons.
“We’re actively working with colleagues from forces across the UK, and national and international law enforcement agencies to trace these guns, whilst locking up a string of dangerous criminals as we go, and Feeley is our latest.”
