The getaway driver for the robbery gang that killed PC Sharon Beshenivsky in 2005 has been given two life sentences for playing a ‘leading role’ in an underworld gun supply operation.
Officers from Scotland Yard's Specialist Crime Command identified Faisal Razzaq, 45, as the supplier of reactivated blank firing handguns to criminals across London.
The weapons were converted by Thomas McKenna, 60, a far-Right extremist who had been stockpiling his own stash of weapons after speaking of ‘prepping for war’ with Muslims.
McKenna lived on the Buckles Lane caravan site South Ockenden, Essex, where he had set himself up as an armourer for the criminal underworld, building the arms in a hidden ‘factory’.
In one disturbing conversation, Razzaq told an associate, Abdul Rahman Saleh, that if police ever tried to detain him, he should not hesitate to shoot at them in order to escape.
In a bugged conversation he told Saleh: ‘Feds try and grab you, just shoot at the car, shoot in the air. I don't care where you shoot but you've got to shoot bro.’
Faisal Razzaq – the getaway driver for the gang that murdered PC Sharon Beshenivsky – has now been jailed for his role in the sale of reactivated blank-firing handguns
PC Beshenivsky was shot dead on her youngest daughter's fourth birthday in 2005, while she was responding to an armed robbery at a travel agent's in Bradford
An officer from the Met's specialist crime command commented: ‘This is a shocking and very worrying thing to hear for someone who had already served a lengthy prison sentence for his involvement in the fatal shooting of a police officer.’
The notorious killing of Beshenivsky, on her youngest daughter's fourth birthday, came as she answered a call to an alarm that had sounded at the Universal Express travel agents in Bradford on November 18, 2005, as an armed robbery was underway.
The robbers burst from the premises, one of them shooting at the unarmed officer and her colleague, PC Teresa Milburn, who was hit but survived.
Razzaq was waiting around the corner in one of two getaway cars - the other driven by his brother, Hassan - and West Yorkshire Police launched a huge manhunt for the gang.
Razzaq, originally from Forest Gate, East London had a long history of involvement in firearms and had served two previous prison sentences, in 1998 and 2001.
In August 2004, he was seen hurling a bag containing four handguns from a car during a high-speed chase on the M40 and M25 but skipped bail before joining the gang which killed PC Beshenivksy.
Some of the converted guns siezed by police as part of Operation Eatchief, which led to 11 arrests
Following his arrest, Razzaq was sentenced to life with a minimum of 11 years for manslaughter, along with his brother and three other men.
The mastermind of the travel agent robbery, Piran Ditta Khan, was tracked down to Pakistan, extradited back to Britain, and jailed for life in May 2024.
Days later, detectives received intelligence that Razzaq was involved in the transfer and sale of firearms.
He had been released in 2017 and established himself in the arms supply business, using the cover of a luxury car hire company called Flexible Hire Contracts in Bushey, Herts.
Police launched Operation Eatchief to identify the rest of his network, eventually arresting a total of nine men and two women for the supply of weapons, recovering six converted firearms and another nine ready for conversion.
The team began by making an armed stop on a silver Audi heading to the Notting Hill Carnival on August 26, 2024.
Razzaq was arrested in September 2024 after police had bugged his vehicle to identify all the individuals involved in the dangerous conspiracy
The passenger was Pride Tuhwe, 26, an associate of Razzaq, and inside was a man bag containing thousands of pounds in cash, a Turkish Ceonic P320 pistol that had been converted into a viable weapon and eight hollow point "dum dum" bullets designed to expand on impact to make them more lethal.
Forensic scientists found a fingerprint and DNA for McKenna, a lorry driver originally from Glasgow, who lived in three caravans on the Buckles Lane compound with his partner, bus driver Tina Smith, 54.
An associate called Ricky Dorey, 44, was observed delivering a firearm in his tow truck to Razzaq in Harrow on September 2 and police raided the address, discovering one of McKenna's weapons in a hidden compartment in a wardrobe.
Detectives discovered that Razzaq was assisted in selling the firearms by Abdul Rahman Saleh, 32, from Edgware and both men were arrested the same day in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire.
Alisdair Smith, prosecuting, told Harrow Crown Court the case involved the supply of ‘a large quantity of firearms’ by brothers Ricky Dorey and Robert Dorey to Faisal Razzaq ‘for onward sale to others who had a criminal use for them’.
Saleh was used by Razzaq to help with the onward sale of some of the firearms and Razzaq sold ten revolvers during August that year alone.
Far-right extremist Thomas McKenna, 60, who made the guns as well as explosive devices, was jailed for a minimum of 16 years in February
Armed police point firearms and a taser at McKenna as he is arrested during the early morning raid in November 2024 at one of his three caravans in an Essex traveller camp
Among the deadly cache at McKenna's caravans were two homemade grenades and 34 ready to be loaded with explosive
The improvised explosive devices were filled with shrapnel made from screws and bullet casings designed to greatly increase the damage when they were set off
Dum-dum shells, designed to collapse on impact with their target to maximise injury, were also made by the Glasgow-born lorry driver
A lathe was among equipment used by McKenna to make the weapons
A bug was placed in Razzaq’s vehicle implicating each of the defendants in their role in the conspiracy, he said.
In one conversation, Razzaq commented: ‘I'll sell it to anyone, I don't give a f**k bro. We're businessmen, we don't care.’
Razzaq, who appeared in court today wearing a grey Boss polo shirt, was sentenced to life with a minimum of eight years for conspiracy to sell firearms.
He received the same sentence, to run concurrently, for possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, and possession of ammunition.
Judge Hannah Kinch told him: ‘Criminals use guns in order to terrorise and intimidate others which is exactly why they are sought out.
‘They kill, maim and damage the lives of their victims, whether they are their intended target or not, and all those who mourn their loss.
‘It is no exaggeration to say that guns are a modern plague on our streets and when such cases come before the court they will be met with serious sentences.’
An image issued by West Yorkshire Police shows PC Beshenivsky and her colleague PC Therea Milburn as they were shot at during the raid at Universal Express travel agents
McKenna and Smith were living in one caravan in Buckles Lane, surrounded by weapons and explosives, with a second caravan used as a workshop and a third that was empty.
When police raided the site, on November 8, 2024, they discovered 4.5kg of black powder explosives and a jug by the dining room table with two homemade grenades made from fish baiters and another 34 ready to be loaded with explosives.
There was also more than 2kg of precursor chemicals and a second caravan equipped with equipment including a lathe, two pillar drills, a hand drill, clamps, welding equipment and spray paint cans.
The weapons included a replica AK-47 assault rifle and a Sten submachinegun which McKenna was attempting to convert in readiness for a race war against Muslims and immigrants.
Analysis of his private messages on TikTok, Facebook and Signal, revealed he was ‘prepping for war’ by collecting weapons to kill Muslims ‘before there are too many’.
Messages revealed that McKenna had been stockpiling weapons over the course of 18 months and was thinking of ‘kicking it off myself’, saying that he did not understand why Muslims were not ‘being slotted’.
For their parts in the conspiracy, Ricky Dorey was jailed for ten years today and his brother, Robert, for eight years. Saleh was sentenced to seven years and six months.
McKenna was jailed at Kingston Crown Court in Surrey for 16 years in February and Smith to a total of seven years.
Two other gang members, car salesman Allan Crosby and Ryan Smith, both 40, who ran a high-end car dealership, Sterling Sports and Prestige Ltd in Kent, and were found with one of the converted pistols, were jailed for seven years and ten years respectively
Speaking after the sentencing earlier this year, Detective Chief Inspector James Tipple, of the Met’s Specialist Crime Command, said busting the gang had led to ‘significant reductions in the numbers of converted blank firearms involved in shooting in London’.
He added: ‘It is extremely rare you take out an entire criminal network like this in one go.’