The violence came as police warned that the
“fluid supply” of guns was becoming increasingly difficult to control, with gangs using new and innovative ways of smuggling them past border defences.
Simon Brough, head of firearms at the National Crime Agency (NCA), also warned that the “sheer volume” of
firearms coming into the UK represented a “pernicious threat” that urgently needed to be addressed.
“The scale is really challenging, he told the Telegraph. “We are doing everything we can but criminals are operating in a lucrative business where they can be increasingly innovative and operate in a highly effective way.”
Last week, an Irish man found with 60 firearms in his car in Dover, en route from Calais, admitted gun smuggling.
Robert Keogh, 37, was stopped on August 2 by Border Force officers who found the weapons concealed deep inside the vehicle’s bumper and both rear quarter panels.
The number of shootings has been on the rise since 2013 and has in part being linked to the 2,000 drug supply chains identified as part of the country lines network.
Mr Brough said hand guns were being smuggled through eastern Europe, across nexus points in Belgium and the Netherlands and then onwards into the UK.
“Some of the methods criminal groups are using are incredibly sophisticated, for example, they are built into the interior of vehicles,” he said.
“The challenge at the border is the sheer volume of the operation.
“When a gun is coming in as a fast parcel, how can we find that? It’s a needle in a haystack.”
Shotguns lawfully held are being diverted into the criminal market via burglaries while other weapons are purchased blank and then converted.
Mr Brough said there was a trend towards “new and clean” guns being used for the first time that did not link to previous crimes.
“The source of them and availability leads to incidents such as we’ve seen this weekend,” he added.
