Kaleem Akhtar, a 29-year-old businessman, teamed up with the former cage-fighter Paul Wilson, the "gangster" Mudassar Ali and four others to sell an "assassin's armoury" to the underworld. Akhtar was said to be driven by a "desire for street cred and glory"."thrill-seeking rich kid" who helped organise the biggest gun-running gang ever uncovered in Britain was jailed for 20 years yesterday.They flooded the criminal underworld with handguns, silencers and bullets, packaged into kits and sold at £1,700 a time. The kits, described as "ballistic bling", became a status symbol favoured by violent street gangs and used in crimes in Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Leeds, Bradford and Scotland. Such was the spread of the weapons that they led to a "spike" in gun crime figures.The seven men were sentenced to a total of 86 years at Manchester Crown Court yesterday.There were gasps and tears from the public gallery as Akhtar, whose millionaire family run a shopping and warehouse business in Liverpool and Manchester, was jailed. His family includes an uncle who is an MP in Pakistan and a grandfather who is a former government minister.
The judge, Clement Golstone QC, said Akhtar was attracted by the "glamour and notoriety" of gangs. He said: "You were drawn to this conspiracy out of greed and a desire for street cred and glory. You have not brought glory to your family, which is well respected here and in Pakistan; you have brought shame and disgrace."
Akhtar led a double life, playing the dutiful son with an arranged marriage in the £350,000 home he was given as a wedding gift by his family, and working in his family's clothing firm empire. But behind his privileged and respectable background, the self-styled "Big K" distributed handguns to gangs and major criminals.
He drove an expensive Range Rover and spent much of his time in nightclubs, keeping two secret girlfriends and living the life of a mobster.Each of the gang's Russian-made Baikal handguns were brought from Lithuania to Essex, then taken in batches to Manchester by the Lithuanian brothers Agnius, 26, and Edgaras Malcevas, 39. But police had the gang under surveillance.They were sold on to Ali, 30, from Bradford, who was described as the "senior player". Ali, who was jailed for 18 years yesterday, recruited Akhtar and others as salesmen and couriers.Wilson, 37, a career criminal and drug dealer who lived in a £1m house in Southport, Merseyside – and who lost his one professional cage fight – bought the guns to sell on. He was jailed for 11 years and six months. Asaid Salim, 27, from Trafford, Greater Manchester, who packaged the assassins' kits, was jailed for 10 years, eight months.All were convicted of conspiracy to possess firearms and ammunition with intent to enable another to endanger life.Michael Peake, 44, from Liverpool, a courier for Wilson, was jailed for nine years for possession of firearms. Agnius Malcevas was jailed for 12 years and ordered to be deported after his release. His brother, Edgaras, was jailed for five years.All of the weapons were originally blank-firing gas handguns which can be sold legally for about £100 in some countries. But they had been stripped down and re-barrelled, converting them to fire 9mm bullets, as accurate and powerful as factory-made weapons.Police seized 56 Baikal pistols supplied by the gang, which was "only a proportion" of the true figure.

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Gangs, who were armed with claw hammers, struck at Selfridges in Exchange Square and Harvey Nichols in New Cathedral Street at 1100 BST. Three men went into Selfridges and smashed glass counters before stealing several watches worth about £400,000.
Two men wearing helmets attacked a security guard in Harvey Nichols, before taking watches worth £300,000. The guard was taken to hospital with minor injuries. The five men left in a red Ford Transit van, which has since been recovered on Mirabel Street. These men were after high-value pieces The van is believed to have been recently stolen from the Prestwich area but had since been fitted with false number plates. The five men then made their getaway in an unknown vehicle. Greater Manchester Police said the two incidents were linked and inquiries were continuing.
Det Sgt Dave Turner said: "This incident has left one man with minor injuries and a number of other people extremely distressed. "These men seem to have had a clear plan of attack, they were after high-value pieces and knew which counters to target to find them." One man is described as 5ft 10in (1.77m) and of a stocky build and was wearing a red fleece jacket and a peaked BMX-style helmet. Another was slightly smaller wearing a light white high-visibility jacket.

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