A DRUG dealer who had “an arsenal of firearms” hidden under the floorboards of a Huddersfield house has been jailed for 11 years.
A de-activated Israeli-made Uzi sub-machine gun and a converted Russian Baikal pistol with silencers were among the stash of weapons and ammunition which police discovered when they arrested 27-year-old Zahid Ali last September.
A court heard yesterday that following the raid, the three prohibited handguns which had been seized were analysed by the National Ballistic Intelligence Service and it was revealed that the Russian pistol had been used in a drive-by shooting in Manchester in 2006.
The victim had been shot in the leg with the Baikal pistol which had its markings deliberately obliterated and had been converted to fire bullets.
Prosecutor Stephen Wood told Bradford Crown Court: “The prosecution stress that there is no evidence whatsoever to link the defendant with this shooting, but it is indicative, submit the prosecution, of the way that lethal weapons pass with ease within the criminal underworld.”
In addition to the Uzi and the three handguns, officers seized a Taser stun gun, which could also discharge CS gas, and a quantity of ammunition including almost 30 hollow point bullets specially designed to expand on impact to maximise tissue damage, blood loss and shock.
The weapons, which were in a canvas bag, were discovered when police removed some of the floorboards in the bedroom of a house in Bay Hill Common Road, Birkby.
Mr Wood said the Uzi, which was wrapped in cling film and had an empty magazine with it, had been deactivated in 1995 and was incapable of firing any cartridge.
