Drug dealer shot at rival’s home
A DRUG dealer who blasted the windows of a rival’s home with a sawn-off shotgun has been jailed for nearly a decade. Genghis Khan fired the shots at a home in Coventry as part of drugs feud and a month later he returned and fired two more shots into a car parked outside the house. Khan was eventually identified and when officers raided his girlfriend’s home in Towpath Road, Exhall, they found the loaded weapon and 36 shotgun cartridges under a bed. The search also uncovered a bullet-proof vest, two balaclavas and a prohibited Taser disguised as a torch. The officers also recovered various quantities of cocaine worth a total of £8,800.
Khan, 26, of Achal Close, Foleshill, pleaded guilty to two charges of having a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, possessing a prohibited weapon, possessing ammunition without a firearms certificate and possessing cocaine with intent to supply at an earlier court hearing. He was sentenced at Warwick Crown Court on Friday to nine-and-a-half years in prison. He was given four years behind bars, plus another five years, for the two charges of possession of firearm with intent. He was also given concurrent sentences of four years for possessing the ammunition, five years for possessing a prohibited weapon and three years for the drug offence. Examination of his phone by police revealed photos of Khan posing with a sawn-off shotgun and several incriminating text messages, including one sent just 27 minutes after the car shooting simply saying “done”. And ballistics experts were able to match spent cartridge shells recovered from the shooting to cartridges found in a cupboard in Khan’s home, including two loaded in the barrel.
The judge had previously heard that at 2.30am on May 10 last year a shotgun was fired through the sitting room window and front door window of a house in Lauderdale Avenue, Holbrooks.
The couple who lived there were away overnight with their two children and discovered the damage when they got home the next day and called police.
As the investigation into the incident continued, Khan returned to Lauderdale Avenue just under a month later, at 1.30am on June 8.
A parked car was shot at outside the property and the residents called the police. Khan’s family – he, his brother and a cousin - were in dispute with family members of man who lived at the address.
When Khan entered his guilty pleas, Judge Sylvia de Bertodano remarked: “This is firearms linked to serious crime. It is linked to his drug-dealing activities.
“This is a man who has large quantities of cocaine, some of it packaged for street dealing, and he has firearms.”
Speaking after sentencing, Det Con Steve Phillips from West Midlands Police Force CID, said: “Quite what the dispute was about is unclear − but whatever the issue there can never be any justification for recklessly discharging a firearm in public.
“We quickly identified Khan as a suspect and amassed a catalogue of evidence against him.
“In one of the SMS messages we found on his phone he boasted about being “strapped” − street slang for having a gun − and that he was “locked and loaded”.
“He went to considerable lengths preparing for the shooting: he used a white, stolen Citroen C3 to commit the offence and travelled all the way to a showroom in Swansea to steal number plates to an identical car. We found evidence on his phone that he’d searched the internet to find a perfect match.
“Thankfully no-one was hurt in the shootings − but despite that he’s been handed a jail term approaching 10 years. That shows how seriously firearm discharges in public are viewed and should send out a powerful message that this type of intimidating behaviour won’t be tolerated.”