An undercover cop proved pivotal in preventing three viable firearms and ammunition from ending up on the streets of Bristol and the UK.
As a result of intelligence received from "Jimmy", Avon and Somerset Police were able to mount an operation to disrupt an organised crime group which had arranged for firearms to be imported into the UK from the USA.
Three brand-new Taurus handguns were bought in Atlanta, Georgia, and concealed in bluetooth speakers, before being posted to addresses in Fishponds, Bristol and Hackney, London.
As a result of the UK police operation, officers in Miami were able to intercept a package containing 330 rounds of ammunition, also hidden in a speaker, before it could be exported.
The investigation was supported by Homeland Security Investigations and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms in the USA.
Five men were charged in connection with their involvement in the illegal importation of firearms.
They are:
Alcot Flemming, 44, of Quarry Lane, Lawrence Weston
Kenville Hall, 30, of Frampton Crescent, Fishponds
Busiso Benjamin, 30, of Gorse Hill, Fishponds
All three admitted two counts of conspiring to supply a firearm and Hall also admitted a charge of conspiring to possess ammunition.
Rhaffeek Morson, 29, of Stanway Court, Hackney, admitted one count of conspiring to supply a firearm.
Nico Lacroix, 23, of Frampton Crescent, Fishponds, admitted a charge of encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence.
Richard Posner, prosecuting, told Bristol Crown Court undercover officer Jimmy worked as a paint sprayer at Fishponds trading estate, where he met Alcot Flemming.
Flemming told Jimmy two relatives had guns for sale, and Hall and Benjamin sold him firearms and ammunition for £11,500, imported from the USA to the UK.
The court heard the firearms, which were brand new and unused, would almost certainly have fallen into the hands of those wishing to cause harm to others.
Mr Posner said the crime group used social media chat groups to co-ordinate their illicit enterprise and evidence showed they spent November 2019 arranging for the firearms to be bought in Atlanta and posted to the UK.
On Thursday 21 November, a parcel containing a bluetooth speaker was delivered to Kenville Hall’s home address in Fishponds, and signed for by Nico Lacroix, who believed it be a delivery of imported cannabis.
The package actually contained a 9mm Taurus self-loading pistol hidden inside the speaker.
A second package was delivered to a property in Hackney, London, which also contained two firearms hidden within a speaker – a 9mm Taurus self-loading pistol and a Taurus .40 calibre self-loading pistol.
This package was picked up by Hall the following day, who transported them to Bristol where they were to be sold.
During their investigation police recovered a video on an encrypted social media platform on Hall’s mobile phone in which he’d filmed himself holding the weapons.
The chilling video was being used to advertise the weapons for sale to his criminal associates, but they were intercepted by Avon and Somerset police officers and the group members were arrested during a series of armed operations.
Mr Posner said: "This was a planned, organised and sophisticated criminal enterprise.
"The defendants and others conspired to do so with little or no regard for human life.
"Supplying guns into the UK can lead you to no other conclusion other than greed."
Judge James Patrick handed Lacroix a four months jail term, suspended for two years, after Lacroix admitted signing for two parcels containing guns, believing they contained "California weed".
The judge adjourned sentencing on the other men until October 12 and remanded them in custody.
