The dramatic moment Paul Ferris was dragged through a car window by cops during his arrest for smuggling machine guns to Scotland has been relived by the officer who led the operation.
Former Scotland Yard senior investigating officer Michael Hallowes has spoken out for the first time to tell how Ferris was captured as part of a probe involving MI5, Strathclyde Police, and the South-East Regional Crime Squad (SERCS).
In Operation Abonar, Hallowes’ new book on the undercover investigation, the former cop tells how Ferris had three MAC-10 submachine guns, Uzi magazines, silencers and dozens of blue-tipped and copper-jacketed 9mm ammunition in an Opal Fruits box. Hallowes said underworld figure Ferris, 59, planned to use the deadly weapons to “settle a gangland feud in Glasgow”.
Telling how Ferris was arrested in a dramatic scene on the streets of central London in 1997, Hallowes said: “Ferris and his associate Henry Suttie were travelling along Upper Berkeley Street in Marylebone when they were suddenly overtaken by two nondescript police cars.
"Before they could fully comprehend what was happening, Ferris braked hard to avoid a collision with the first, which had now cut in front. The second boxed them in on the off-side, while parked cars prevented any escape along the other.
“Six casually dressed men jumped from the two vehicles wearing black baseball caps with chequered bands embroidered with the word ‘Police’. Two grabbed Ferris through the open window and forcibly pulled him out.
"He had no chance to resist. Suttie’s removal was only slightly more dignified as the detectives opened his door first before wrenching him out.”
The book claims Strathclyde Detective Superintendent Don McGregor said the guns Ferris was ferrying to Scotland were “to settle a gangland feud in Glasgow”. Hallowes, now 61, tells how they were found in the possession of Constance ‘Connie’ Howarth when she was detained during the 1997 surveillance operation after Ferris gave her the box.
It says: “Constance Howarth was frustrated at her slow progress in heavy traffic. ‘What the f*** are you doing?’ she screamed at the man driving the white Ford Transit van as it now overtook her car and then cut sharply in front.
"Furious, she braked hard to avoid a collision and yelled, hoping its driver or a passenger would hear her protests. As she glanced in the rear-view mirror, she saw with horror as the dark grey Range Rover behind shunted gently into the back of her car, blocking all movement.
“‘F***, f***, f***’, she screamed as plain-clothes detectives from SERCS wrenched open the front two doors of her car and one pulled the keys from the ignition.
“‘Constance Howarth?’ the detective asked. ‘Yes’. ‘Police. You’re under arrest for unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition’.
“From the boot of the Vauxhall Nova, another detective wearing forensic gloves had already removed the heavy Opal Fruits box. Inside, he found the three MAC-10 submachine guns, six 30-round Uzi magazines, three silencers and 150 rounds of blue-tipped and copper-jacketed 9mm ammunition.”
Hallowes, the Scotland Yard detective who led the gun-running inquiry, holds 18 policing awards and commendations and reached the rank of detective chief superintendent. He was appointed Emergency Services Commissioner for the state of Victoria, Australia, in 2011. He described the investigation in the book as a trailblazing piece of police work.
He said: “Abonar was ground-breaking. We were confronted by a gunrunning network that relied on anonymous communications to frustrate our attempts to identify them.
“It was the first time Scotland Yard employed such wide-ranging and pioneering techniques in the lawful exploitation of telecoms data to solve a case. Today, thanks to our work, they are commonplace in serious crime investigations.”
Speaking to the Daily Record about the investigation, Hallowes said: “Ferris being arrested suddenly made sense of all the mobile phone and pager data that my team had painstakingly gathered and collated. When we got the intelligence from Strathclyde and MI5, it all made sense.
"This showed guns being smuggled to a genuine crime gang boss in Scotland. Ferris’s full role in the chain was confirmed due to the work of all involved, including the intelligence and evidence gathered on the men supplying him with guns and ammunition by my team and I.
"Operation Abonar was one of the biggest successes of my career and led to me delivering a speech to the UN General Assembly in New York on countering the illicit firearms trade. The operation stopped another potential 60 MAC10 machine guns and 6000 rounds of 9mm ammunition reaching gangs in Glasgow, Dublin, London, Manchester and Liverpool.
“Sadly, the armourer, Anthony Mitchell, had already diverted many to the criminal market before we could get to him and his couriers.”
Ferris became one of Scotland’s most feared men after serving as an enforcer for Glasgow crime lord Arthur Thompson, who was dubbed “The Godfather”, before branching out on his own. During his criminal career Ferris walked free from a murder rap and drugs and firearms charges.
He was cleared of executing Thompson’s son, Arthur “Fat Boy” Junior, outside his father’s notorious “Ponderosa” home in Glasgow’s Provanmill area. But he was caged over the gun-running plot, spending time in Belmarsh prison, in London, and has written several books about his criminal past.
- Operation Abonar, which is described as “The compelling inside story of Britain’s biggest gunrunning investigation that officials didn’t want told”, costs £18.99 and is available in shops and online.
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