Gun converter who planned crystal meth lab jailed

An armourer who converted blank firing guns into weapons and planned to produce industrial supplies of crystal meth has been jailed.

Dudley Brennan, 31, of Sandes Avenue, in Kendal, was sentenced to 22 years and three months at Bolton Crown Court on Monday after he converted weapons under the cover of his motorcycle repairs business in the Lake District.

He was found to have worked closely with Peter Weston, 40, of Sparrow Hall Road, Norris Green, in Liverpool, who coordinated their organised crime group and who was sentenced to 26 years and nine months behind bars.

Both men had previously admitted conspiring to sell or transfer prohibited weapons and conspiracy to sell Class A drugs.

Brennan converted at least two submachine guns as well as a number of pistols.

On 7 March, National Crime Agency (NCA) officers raided Brennan's business premises at Fell View Trading Park in Kendal after witnessing him taking a delivery of 10 Turkish-made Ekol top-venting blank firearms.

NCA officers also found a methylamphetamine (crystal meth) production lab in his kitchen.

Three other members of their crime group were also sentenced.

Weston arranged a meeting at a car park in Lancaster for Brennan to take delivery of the guns from co-conspirators Daniel Fitzgerald, 32, and Ryan Pilling, 29.

Inside the business NCA found a firearms conversion factory and also recovered a Makarov style semi-automatic pistol which was in the process of being converted to fire 9mm ammunition, a quantity of bullets and a silencer.

Weston worked with Brennan and was the organised crime group's sales broker, putting other offenders in touch with the armourers and facilitating sales, NCA said.

Pilling, of Wigan Road, Ashton, followed Weston's instructions, directing Fitzgerald and helping plan offences and was jailed for 13 years and seven months.

Fitzgerald, of Winstanley Road, in Wigan, ordered the 10 Ekols from an online retailer for Brennan to convert and was jailed for eight years.

Meanwhile, Joshua Ee liased with a customer in Spain about buying a converted gun and his DNA was found on a recovered, converted weapon from a vehicle in Widnes, in Cheshire, in May 2023, and offered to source firearms if Brennan would convert them.

The 27- year-old of Malvern Avenue, in Doncaster, was jailed for 13 years and six months.

All admitted conspiring to sell or transfer prohibited weapons.

NCA branch manager, Cat McHugh, said: "Brennan and the group were only interested in making money and didn't care at all about the harm these firearms could do in our communities.

"They were a real danger to the public."

Follow BBC Cumbria on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.