Drugs and guns kingpin made £52m from crime

A KINGPIN who ran a gang responsible for one of the biggest gun running plots ever seen in the UK benefited from crime to the tune of £52m.

- By ANDREW BARDSLEY

Omar Malik, 40, was at the head of a gang which flooded the country with drugs and guns. A ledger kept by Malik revealed over a five-month period, the outfit sold up to £70m-worth of drugs.

The gang also supplied organised crime gangs across the country with deadly weapons, including Skorpion sub-machine guns and Grand Power pistols. The gang acquired 49 Grand Power pistols for £147,000 and offered them for sale for between £5,000 and £8,000 each.

They also got hold of 52 Skorpion machine guns. By May 2020 at least 48 were sold to criminals for between £9,000 and £15,000 each.

This was said to be the highest level of firearm traffickers ever encountered by law enforcement in the UK. The gang enjoyed the trappings of wealth through this terrifying trade.

They flaunted designer clothes, flashy cars and lavish jewellery. But the law enforcement infiltration of the EncroChat communications network, which these and other criminals used and believed would allow them to operate with impunity, brought them down.