A gang of three men and one woman from north Manchester who were found to be in possession of unlicensed firearms, have been jailed this morning after pleading guilty to firearm offences
Martin Joyce,38, of Ashley Lane, Moston, has been jailed for 10 years and a half years after being found guilty of conspiracy to transfer prohibited weapons.
Joseph Hodskinson, 32, of Hesford Avenue, Moston, has been jailed for 10 years, after being found guilty of conspiracy to transfer prohibited weapons. He also received a concurrent sentence of 4 years 3 months after being found guilty of converting firearms.
Mark Crolla,40of Scotland Hall Road, Newton Heath, has been jailed for 5 years and a half years after being found guilty of possessing prohibited firearms and Dannell Jammeh, 39, of Scotland Hall Road, Newton Heath, has been jailed for 5 years after being found guilty of possessing prohibited firearms.
The court was told how a total of five firearms and a large quantity of ammunition – including an imitation assault rifle were discovered and seized by officers from GMPs Serious and Organised Crime Unit during raids on properties in Newton Heath and Audenshaw in December 2020.
Hodksinson regularly purchased rounds of blank ammunition as well as deactivated firearms online, having them delivered to his home address on Ashley Lane. In November 2019, one of the parcels from a retailer in Spain was intercepted by the UK Border Force at Birmingham Airport and was found to contain yet another deactivated pistol.
An investigation soon uncovered the other three defendants as all being part of the same organised crime group, with Joyce and Hodskinson working together to buy, convert and sell a wide range of firearms and ammunition. Whilst Jammeh and Crolla stored the firearms.
In December 2020, during the warrants that saw the group arrested, officers who attended the home of Crolla and Jammeh, who were in a relationship at the time, found an imitation AK47 firearm along with a loaded magazine found hidden in the loft of the address.
At around 2pm on the day Crolla and Jammeh were arrested, Joyce who had found out about the arrests, attempted to flee to Dubai, booking a one way ticket but he was arrested by officers at Manchester Airport.
When arrested Joyce was found to be in a possession of a suitcase which contained £2000 in cash and a mobile phone which was seized. Following inspection of the phone, several messages were found in which Joyce commented that ‘he needs to bounce’ referring to his need to flee the country due to his involvement in the organised crime group.
Detective Chief Inspector Joseph Harrop, of GMPs Serious Crime Division, said: “This investigation was part of ‘Operation Owando’ which is GMPs investigation into organised crime groups who are involved in the purchase of deactivated/blank firing firearms, which are then subsequently reactivated to be sold on to further criminals involved in serious and organised crime.
“Detective Sergeant Damian Reed of the Serious Organised Crime Group was the officer in charge of this case and has worked tirelessly to bring the offenders to justice”.
DS Reed said “This group posed a significant threat to the public being in possession of such weapons and it’s a relief that they are now going to spend the foreseeable future behind bars. The firearms trade funds serious criminality, which can lead to people losing their lives as well as destroying local communities”.
“This was a complex case and I’d like to thank the Detectives and specialist teams who have worked hard to make sure that these men have been served justice today, and we will continue to fight this type of crime.
“As always, we do also rely on information received from the public, so if you have concerns that someone in your local community may be involved in this type of serious criminality please get in touch so we can continue to make the streets of Greater Manchester safer for everyone.”
