A SOPHISTICATED gun-running ring was smashed yesterday in a major
undercover operation in which nearly 200 police raided at least 35
homes.
Detectives, 40 of them armed, seized machine-guns, pistols, and drugs
and arrested 20 people, including some women, who were being questioned
at a number of police stations.
The raids, which began on Tuesday night and continued for 15 hours,
took place in six counties in South-east England and the Midlands.
Part of Operation Lucy, they were targeted on the country's most
violent armed robbers and drug dealers.
The man in charge of the operation, Detective Chief Superintendent
John Branscombe, said: ''Somebody intended to use these weapons -- they
were not for show.
''The operation began when it became obvious at the end of last year
that more and more weapons were being used by criminals.''
Mr Branscombe said that a total of 17 firearms and a large amount of
ammunition had been recovered but officers expected to find more at
secret sites.
''The guns were destined for the criminal fraternity and in the main
to drug dealers.''
The seized weapons, including Uzi submachine-guns, high-powered
rifles, and shotguns, are believed to have been smuggled from Eastern
Europe following the collapse of the Soviet Union and to have sparked a
''price war'' as the cheap imports flooded the illegal gun market.
One officer said: ''It is like a supermarket price war. This is an
operation that is ongoing. The raids came hours after Detective Sergeant
Michael Stubbs was shot in the head with a machine-gun as he chased a
gang of bank raiders in Sidcup, Kent.
The gun used in the raid could have been bought for as little as #200
but is not believed to be directly linked to this ring.
Officers from the South-east Regional Crime Squad, backed by local
firearms officers and dog handlers, swooped on addresses in Luton,
Leighton Buzzard, and Linslade in Bedfordshire, Milton Keynes in
Buckinghamshire, Raunds, Higham Ferrers, and Rushden in
Northamptonshire, Ilford in east London, west and east London, and
Cambridgeshire.
The operation followed nine months of surveillance and planning by the
police.
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