10,000 firearm crimes in ‘Wild West Britain’
ORGANISED crime has become so common, Britain now sees about 10,000 firearms offences a year, the head of the National Crime Agency has warned.
NCA director general Lynne Owens told the annual Police Superintendents’ Conference last week that recorded firearms offences have risen by 38 per cent since 2014.
There were 10,000 individual crimes recorded in the year ending March 2019, with 33 people shot dead over the same period in the UK.
Ms Owens said: “Serious and organised crime brings gun violence to our communities.
“These weapons primarily come from overseas – often originating in eastern Europe before being transported to Belgium or the Netherlands and on to criminals in the UK.
“They are a very clear example of a threat that creates fear and violence in our towns and cities and in our communities that requires a response from the very local to the international.”
Ms Owens spoke just hours before a major armed police operation scoured the Star Lane traveller site in Orpington, south London, looking for firearms believed to be hidden there.
Hundreds of officers raided the site at 2.45am on Wednesday. The large site made national headlines in April 2018 when one of its former occupants, Henry Vincent, was killed by Richard Osborn-brooks, 79, during a botched burglary at his home.
Police spent two days searching Star Lane and seven people were held on suspicion of other offences.
The six men and one woman arrested range in age from 19 to 59.
Officers found a loaded shotgun, a rifle, BB gun, a musket, rounds of ammunition, CS gas, a machete, and 17 air weapons which have been sent for tests to see if they are legal.
Commander Kyle Gordon said: “A firearm seized by police represents a weapon that is not in the hands of someone who might use it to harm others and commit crime.”
Ms Owens said more recent figures for the year to March 2020 show NCA activity led to the seizure of
more than 250 firearms in the UK, with other forces “taking many others out of circulation”.
She said Operation Venetic, which dismantled entire organised crime groups, saw 87 firearms already recovered since it began in April.
Investigators gained vital information by hacking into the encrypted Encrochat mobile phone system used by 60,000 criminals worldwide.
Ms Owens told the conference that tackling gun traffickers was a key NCA priority with officers being posted into eastern
‘Weapons come from overseas’ ‘We’ll increase our presence’
Europe to tackle the source of the firearms. She said: “We want to deliver, for the first time, a truly end-to-end approach against these criminals.
“We’ll do this by increasing our presence in source and transit countries from which people are trafficked, firearms supplied and illicit drugs produced, taking action at the very earliest opportunity.”
Earlier this month it was reported that shootouts between rival gangs in Sheffield have become so common that some residents are no longer shocked by the sound of gunshots.
One woman told the local newspaper that after being woken by a gunshot just before daybreak, she heard three more shots ring out before rolling over and going back to sleep.
Police seized 12 firearms across the city in the space of a few weeks.