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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
National
Andrew Bardsley & Joe Thomas

Costa del Sol fugitive oversaw deal for guns in a Tesco car park

A fugitive arrested on the Costa del Sol oversaw a gun deal in a Tesco car park.

Robert Brazendale was responsible for collecting £37,000 as part of a plot over the sale of three guns - including an Uzi.

Guns and ammunition were also discovered when detectives dug up his back garden.

Read More: Fear, heartbreak and hope as Liverpool battles with knife crime after latest tragedy

Brazendale was the subject of a European Arrest Warrant when he was arrested in the Spanish town of Estepona.

The October 2020 swoop was the result of a National Crime Agency operation linked to the communications network EncroChat, whose users included top-level criminals.

National Crime Agency search teams dug up two guns from the garden of a home in Warrington. Image: NCA (Liverpool ECHO)

The 34-year-old was pictured in handcuffs, wearing a white Under Armour T-shirt, as he was taken into custody over allegations surrounding the discovery by police of an AK47 assault rifle hidden in a commercial building in Warrington and Uzi and Skorpion sub machine guns, 300 rounds of ammo, £180,000 cash and a kilogram of cocaine from a location in London.

Following his arrest that NCA investigation led search teams to his Selworthy Drive home in Warrington.

Two parcels were dug up from the garden.

One contained a loaded Smith & Wesson 9mm semi-automatic pistol and approximately 100 rounds of ammunition and inside the other was a Grand Power semiautomatic pistol with more than 20 rounds of ammunition and a suppressor.

National Crime Agency search teams dug up two guns from the garden of a home in Warrington. Image: NCA (Liverpool ECHO)

A Manchester Crown Court trial heard Brazendale had worked as a courier and driver for Umair Zaheer, who had sent a list of weapons for sale to another user via EncroChat.

Brazendale used a red Citroen van for the handover of an AK47 and ammunition in a £10,500 deal.

And he was responsible for taking £37,000 in cash during a handover in the car park of the Tesco branch in Thelwell, Warrington, as part of a deal involving a Skorpion, an Uzi and a revolver.

Brazendale carried out that deal on a bicycle.

He has admitted conspiring to transfer prohibited weapons.

Zaheer, 34 and from Eccles, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess firearms or ammunition with intent to endanger life.

Both are set to be sentenced in the new year.

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