Two gangsters involved in transporting a deadly firearm in the back of a minicab across south east London have been jailed.
Armed officers carried out a hard stop on the car Mojtab Moradi was travelling in along Days Lane, Sidcup.
Minutes earlier, Moradi, 37, was seen emerging from an alleyway near an Indian restaurant on Maidstone Road carrying several large bags, including a Primark carrier, which he put in the boot.
Officers searched the private hire vehicle and found a converted blank-firing .22inch calibre Rimfire double barrelled Derringer Pistol, wrapped in a tea towel.
Eight rounds of ammunition in a toiletry-type bag were discovered in the Primark bag in September 2022.
DNA evidence proved Robert Reading, 50, had supplied the handgun to him.
His vehicle was also seen in the same area before Moradi’s arrest.
Moradi, from Gossage Road, Plumstead, also had 16 wraps of crack cocaine in his pockets.
As he was arrested, two burner-style Nokia mobile phones fell from the side of the car where he had been sitting.
Kent Police officers raided Reading’s home in Castle Street, Wouldham, near Rochester on the same day.
A Birmingham single barrel sawn-off shotgun hidden in the loft was seized.
At Inner London Crown Court on Tuesday, a judge sentenced Moradi to five years imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm, ammunition and Class A drugs.
Reading got six-and-a-half years for two counts of having a firearm.
Andrew Tickner, is from the Organised Crime Partnership, a joint National Crime Agency and Metropolitan Police unit.
He said: “Moradi and Reading were caught with deadly weapons which had the potential to inflict serious violence and instil fear on our streets.
“Such illegal firearms have no place in the UK and often end up in the hands of organised criminals, who use them to enforce their operations.
“We’re grateful for the assistance of Kent Police and remain committed to protecting the public by combating the supply of drugs and firearms into London and the South East.”
