Eleven years for drug dealer who had arsenal under floorboards

A deactivated Israeli-made Uzi sub-machine gun and a converted Russian Baikal pistol with silencers were discovered along with two other pistols when 27-year-old Zahid Ali was arrested last September.

Tests by the National Ballistic Intelligence Service revealed 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, which had had its markings deliberately obliterated and had been converted to fire bullets. “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,” prosecutor Stephen Wood told Bradford Crown Court.

In addition to the Uzi and the three handguns officers seized a Taser stun gun, which could also discharge CS gas, and ammunition including almost 30 hollow point bullets specially designed to expand on impact to maximise tissue damage, blood loss and shock.

The weapons were discovered when police removed floorboards in the bedroom of a house in Bay Hill Common Road, Birkby, Huddersfield.

The court heard that Ali had not been charged with any offence in relation to the Uzi because it is not unlawful to possess such a deactivated weapon in a private place.

The three prohibited handguns were all successfully test fired by a firearms expert and the magazine from the Russian weapon still contained three live cartridges.

Police also recovered two bullet-proof vests.

Officers went looking for Ali in connection with other offences of which was he later acquitted, but when they searched the property they recovered heroin and crack cocaine worth over £52,000.

Mr Wood said the drug finds were consistent with Ali being a “wholesale distributor on a long-standing and significant basis”.

“He also possessed an arsenal of firearms and ammunition. The only sensible conclusion that can be drawn from the facts, submit the prosecution, is that these weapons and ammunition were intended by the defendant for his own use with no other legitimate purpose other than the use or threat of serious violence.”

Police also found seven mobile phones, SIM cards, five sets of digital scales, rolls of cling film, freezer bags and just over £8,000 in cash.

Mr Wood said the house was being used for the cutting up of Class A drugs into street deals and it was a case of drug dealing on a substantial scale for profit.

It emerged during yesterday’s hearing that Ali, who has links to addresses in Moorfields Road, Fartown, Huddersfield, and Victoria Mills, Shipley, was locked up for six years when he was only 15 for rape and indecent assault.

He also has a conviction for wounding.

In December he pleaded guilty to a series of charges relating to the possession of prohibited firearms and ammunition together with offences of possessing Class drugs with intent to supply.

Barrister Peter Johnson, for Ali, said he came into possession of the weapons following the death of a good friend.

“There have been since his incarceration in September of last year threats made to his family through telephone communications,” said Mr Johnson.

“These I understand have been passed onto the police but they continue and of course they are a concern to Mr Ali.”

Jailing Ali, Judge Peter Benson said: “The gravity of gun crime cannot be exaggerated in particular in this area of West Yorkshire. Although I have no figures I have seen and witnessed the increase in the use of firearms to maim or kill when people fall out about the drug territory to which they claim control.”

The judge ordered the destruction of the drugs and firearms and in addition made a confiscation order of just over £8,000 against Ali.