Over 100 guns recovered last year as shootings reduce in Greater Manchester
Between April 2020 and the end of March this year, scores of firearms were seized as a result of proactive operations and planned raids supported by our Serious and Organised Crime Firearms Investigation Team (SOC FIT), who were launched in 2018 dedicated to tackling the use of illegal firearms in Greater Manchester.
DI Simon Akker alongside some of the firearms we've recovered since April 2020
The huge haul includes self-loaded pistols, shotguns and imitation firearms held by criminals to be converted into viable weapons including top-venting imitation guns, which GMP has seized 30 converted replicas of since April 2020.
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Working alongside the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit (NWROCU), we continue to tackle the conversion and supply of such legal blank-firing firearms into illegal, lethal ones.
Our response includes a proactive operation - codenamed Lyra - which was formed in July 2020 to investigate the supply and possession of such weapons.
Seven people have been arrested so far, and Scott Robinson, 43, from Oldham, was sentenced to a total of five years for possession of a converted imitation firearm in January.
Two further suspects have been charged as part of the operation and await trial later this year accused of conspiracy to supply firearms.
#ACTION | Over 100 firearms were taken off our streets in the last year as we continue to tackle the use of lethal weapons by OCGs.
— Greater Manchester Police (@gmpolice) June 4, 2021
Our Firearms Investigation Team supported scores of recoveries - as seven districts saw shootings reduce. Read more here: https://t.co/XUJrIZ9fxF pic.twitter.com/AIObp5pUh5
The crackdown has seen discharges in the county reduced from 85 to 71 during the last 12 months - equating to 16%.
One of the most significant district decreases was in Salford (-40%) after the inception of the Operation Naseby disruption hub over a year ago.
The SOC FIT supported a further six boroughs where shootings at least halved in 2020/21, including Wigan (down from nine to two), Bolton (down from five to one) and Tameside (down from four to one).
In Manchester, an increase in recorded discharges saw 10 in the first three months of 2021 in the north of the city alone, which led to a dedicated response between the SOC Firearms team and detectives from the City of Manchester North division.
It included a three-week blitz on organised crime at the end of March where several warrants were executed and 11 arrests were made, yielding three firearms, ammunition, over £150,000 in cash, and 10 kilos of class A and B drugs.
Twenty arrests have been made in total during the offensive, including Jack Modlinsky, 24, of Cheetham Hill, who was jailed for over five-and-a-half years last month when officers found £134,000 in cash, £8,000's worth of cocaine, and a knife during a warrant at his address as part of the action.
There has been just one discharge in the north of the city during the last 10 weeks since our robust response
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