An underworld armourer who sold Uzis, AK47s and sub-machine guns to gangsters has been jailed for 25 years.
Umair Zaheer, 34, who called himself “Assassin’s Creed” after the violent video game, also possessed firearms in relation to a plot to have a gangland rival shot.
The father-of-three was caught after posing for pictures with an AK47, which identified his clothing.
Detectives followed him after they hacked his secretive EncroChat communications system.
Weapons later recovered included two East German AK47s with ammunition, including 30 Russian soft point bullets plus Chinese and South African cartridges.
A Czech army Skorpion machine pistol, an Uzi submachine gun used by the Israeli military and ammunition were found at a house in Brent, North West London.
The guns are all believed to have been imported from the Balkans.
Tim Storrie QC told Manchester crown court: “The weapons included combat and assault weaponry, designed to inflict catastrophic damage.”
Zaheer, of Eccles, Gtr Manchester, admitted gun offences including possessing firearms with intent to endanger life over the plot to shoot a rival.
But the target, who had shot Zaheer’s pal Jordan Waring, 23, and Brandon Moore, 24, in Salford, was arrested before the plan went ahead.
Waring and Moore, Bilal Khan, 33, of Didsbury, and Hitesh Patel, 27, of Chester also pleaded guilty to firearms offences.
Robert Brazendale, a courier for Zaheer from Warrington, admitted conspiring to transfer weapons.
The six men’s sentences totalled 74 years and four months.
