EXCLUSIVE

BY JANE HAMILTON Crime Reporter

GUN SMUGGLERS are using express parcel companies to import deadly weapons destined for Scottish streets.

Organised crime gangs are exploiting the rise in online shopping by concealing their illicit goods among legitimate traffic coming into the country.

But an elite joint police taskforce dedicated to smashing and disrupting organised crime in Scotland has stopped more than 60 firearms reaching the streets in its first year.

The team, made up of National Crime Agency (NCA) and Police Scotland investigators, has been working with Border Force to disrupt the flow of illegal guns.

And 49 people involved in serious and organised crime have been arrested while 64 kilos of drugs with a street value of £2.5million has been seized.

The Organised Crime Partnership (Scotland), based at the state-of-the-art Scottish crime campus in Gartcosh, Lanarkshire, said many of the guns seized are forward-venting blank-firing firearms which can be easily adapted to fire real ammunition.

NCA regional head of investigations for Scotland Gerry McLean said: “These blankfiring handguns can be purchased online from dealers in mainland Europe, where they might not be illegal, and shipped to the UK using fast parcel delivery companies.

“But these weapons can be easily adapted, making them attractive to criminals, and importing them here is an offence which can incur significant jail time, even for a first offence.

“A number of these imports have led to arrests and significant prison sentences, and this shows how the NCA and Police Scotland are able to work with partners and take rapid action to stop them from reaching the streets.”

He added: “The organised crime that impacts upon Scotland’s communities almost always has a cross-border or international element.

“The firearms and drug seizures the OCP(S) have dealt with demonstrate that and highlight how criminals are exploiting the fast parcel system to smuggle weapons, ammunition and drugs into Scotland. “It is something we are actively working with Border Force to disrupt.”

Last year a Fife man was jailed for