#1 The 'Assassination Kit' Gang

[Intro voice over] – It was unlike anything detectives had ever seen before. A criminal gang, spearheaded by one of Nottingham's most notorious criminals, were making and distributing their very own assassination kits.

[Music]

[Host] – So, welcome Mark Adas to The Interview Room, Nottinghamshire Police's first podcast. What do you think?

[DCI Adas] – Yeah, really pleased to be here. Really pleased for doing the first podcast. Thank you very much.

[Host] – Well, we're really glad to have you on the show today. Thank you for joining us and tearing yourself away from your busy day job as a Detective Chief Inspector. Do tell our viewers and our listeners a little bit about what is a Detective Chief Inspector, how long have you been doing that for?

[DCI Adas] – So, I've been a police officer for 25 years. 23 of those years, I've been doing the detective rank, if you like. Still enjoy it as much as I did the first day I joined the police.

[Host] – Oh, that's good. Brilliant, well thank you for being here and I've got to say, this is probably one of the most shocking crimes you've been involved in, right?

A gang making and distributing assassination kits, creating arguably one of the East Midlands’ biggest gun factories. So tell us, what is an assassination kit?

[DCI Adas] – So assassination kit was, we discovered during this investigation, individually packaged, converted self-loading pistols, so they started life as blank firing pistols, which at the time you could legally own.

[Host] – So when we say blank firing pistols, do we mean, like, you know, for the Olympics? At the starting line.

[DCI Adas] – Yeah, absolutely. A pistol that would cause you no harm, but the assassination kits contain the gun. They contained ten individually converted blank firing ammunition into live firing nine millimetre ammunition, a magazine, and really sinister as well, a silencer.

[Host] – A silencer?

[DCI Adas] – Yeah, which in my experience we have not seen a lot of.

[Host] – And also as well latex gloves.

[DCI Adas] – Yeah, so wrapped in latex gloves, yeah absolutely.

[Host] – So this was the killer kit?

[DCI Adas] – Absolutely, all the ingredients and all the equipment you would need to take somebody's life.

[Host] – I mean, about this case as well, the converted ammunitions is interesting as well. Tell us a little bit about the converted ammunition that was in these assassination kits.

[DCI Adas] – Yeah, so the ammunition itself had been converted such that, if fired and should, you know, somebody had been shot with that ammunition, it would have expanded upon impact, causing significant damage and no doubt significant injury, if not loss of life.

[Host] – Wow. I mean, you've been doing this job a long time Mark. In your career have you seen anything like this before?

[DCI Adas] – No, I've been involved in a number of firearms operations in my career, but I've never seen anything on the scale that we saw within this investigation.

[Host] – And so, assassination kit, why do you think these were being created in particular rather than just firearms?

[DCI Adas] – Well, they were being manufactured to no doubt supply, and indeed we were able to evidence supply the criminal underworld, who would have been using it to further their criminality, no doubt high level criminality, no doubt also being available for them to use with rivals and potentially cause, of course, loss of life as such.

[Host] – Do you think it was around forensic opportunities though, having the silencer, having the gun that it might prevent those forensic opportunities you might get with a normally converted firearm or a firearm in particular?

[DCI Adas] – I think from a forensic perspective they were clearly trying to protect the risk of forensic evidence being found on the weapons and I say that because of the way they'd been wrapped, you know, in these latex gloves. So, yeah there will be that aspect and the sinister thing, as I said already with these in particular, is the fact that to have kits ready to go like this, I have not seen that before and I've not seen them with silencers, which, you know, through having a silencer, it means that somebody can get in close quarters to a target without them potentially, you know, being heard, being seen and, of course, the firearm being discharged.

[Host] – It’s like something out of movie, isn’t it?

[DCI Adas] – Absolutely, yeah. You would liken it to something you would see in a Hollywood movie. The use of silencers and things like that.

[Host] – And I think the public will be quite shocked to hear these were actually – these firearms, these assassination kits – were being created in the outbuilding of a man's garden.

[DCI Adas] – Yes they were. This was the back garden of Ronald Knowles. He lived in Alfreton, in Derbyshire, and in his backyard and as you say he had a firearms conversion factory. And it was a staggering find for us.

[Host] – Well paint a picture for us Mark, you know, what was it like in this outbuilding?

[DCI Adas] – It was an Aladdin's cave of tools and various components that you would need to convert and make firearms and ammunition and indeed silencers as well.

[Host] – So all the machinery, all of the pieces that you would need?

[DCI Adas] – Absolutely, it was all in there and there was evidence in there that machining had taken place, you know, we saw remnants of bits of metal on the ground and next to the various different tools that were in there and it was significant. And again, I keep saying it, but I've never seen anything like it in my experience.

[Host] – And tell us about Knowles then. Was he an engineer? Was he a weapon enthusiast? How did you get involved in all of this, this weapon creation? What's his background?

[DCI Adas] – Yeah, it's a good question. So to our knowledge, unemployed. He lived and had lived in this address, we believe, for a good while. We are able to say, having completed the searches when we arrested him, that he clearly had an interest in weapons, we found an array of swords, other gas powered weapons, throwing stars, a myriad of, you know, knives and things like that in his address.

[Host] – He was quite scared when you turned up at his address, wasn't he?

[DCI Adas] – Well he was, yes. I mean, we deployed armed officers, we had to deploy armed officers such was the risk to arrest him and yes, we had to arrest him at gunpoint to make sure that our officers were safe in executing their duties and making the arrest.

[Host] – And what was he doing when you turned up?

[DCI Adas] – Well, he’d started a bonfire, a large bonfire in his back garden and prior to the armed officers arriving we were able to see that he, wearing latex gloves, was emerging from his workshop, carrying items from there and throwing them onto the fire and destroying evidence. So from my perspective, I was obviously very keen to get officers there as quickly as possible to stop the loss of evidence.

[Host] – And tell me how many guns do you think were being made in this factory? What did your investigation find?

[DCI Adas] – So I can say there is evidence of the fact that he made 33 and converted 33 handguns. So, a huge amount. He had, when we arrested him, many hundreds – in fact, if I remember correctly – over 1,000 rounds of blank ammunition that were no doubt going to be used to convert into live ammunition. He had a number of unconverted, yet to be converted pistols that, again, no doubt were going to be used in the conversion and in fact, found some in the boot of his car when we searched his car.

[Host] – So, we could be talking then hundreds of assassination kits?

[DCI Adas] – Conservatively I'd say in the region of 80. In terms of the amount, if I based it upon the amount of ammunition that we found, based upon the other assassination kits that we seized, I would say in the region of at least 80 from the evidence we found at his address, which is huge.

[Host] – Yeah, really huge. And in terms of this kit, where were they going? Where was Knowles hoping for these kits to be sold to?

[DCI Adas] – So we were able to say through our investigation when we were actually able to find where some of these assassination kits and some of these firearms had gone to.

[Host] – Where had they gone to?

[DCI Adas] – Some in the West Midlands, some as far as the south of the country.

[Host] – So, this is not just a Nottinghamshire investigation. These assassination kits were across the country.

[DCI Adas] – Yeah, this was a UK wide distribution of firearms and ammunition.

[Host] – It's unbelievable, isn't it?

[DCI Adas] – It certainly is, and from our investigation, as I alluded to earlier, when we were working with partners we were able to identify where these weapons had been found and we were able to forensically link them back to Knowles and his manufacturing process.

They were all found or involved in serious criminality as well elsewhere in the UK.

[Host] – And if you wanted to buy an assassination kit, how much would one of these assassination kits cost you?

[DCI Adas] – It is a market, firearms, like other illegal commodity, it is a criminal market and prices will change and fluctuate.

[Host] – But there is a market for this because you've noticed that they were being distributed across the country?

[DCI Adas] – Sadly so, yeah, sadly so.

[Host] – And what would these guns be used for?

[DCI Adas] – So, they would be used by other criminal gangs to further their criminality, often high level drug supply, often involving class A drugs. We have seen sadly cases, many cases, throughout the United Kingdom where we are still seeing firearms discharges and I do believe that they would have been used for that purpose as well, to seriously injure if not kill.

[Host] – So as part of this investigation then Mark, were any of these guns actually used?

[DCI Adas] – No, not to our knowledge, thankfully not. It was always my fear that one of these would have been discharged.

[Host] – So you detected this operation in the nick of time?

[DCI Adas] – I believe so, yeah absolutely.

[Host] – We could be looking at a different picture?

[DCI Adas] – Yeah, absolutely. We could be talking about a murder or murders.

[Host] – So let's then talk about how this operation was detected. Who was behind the gang? Tell us a bit more about that.

[DCI Adas] – So, the person that was coordinating the firearms supply was Gary Hardy.

[Host] – And who is Gary Hardy?

[DCI Adas] – He is a well-known, Nottingham criminal and I say that because, he served a 20 year prison sentence in, if I recall correctly, 2008, in relation to high level class A drug supply.

[Host] – And he was the spearhead in this operation?

[DCI Adas] – He was, yeah. It was our case through the evidence that we gathered that he was coordinating the supply of the firearms, manufactured by Ronald Knowles, to an individual called Steven Houston who was based in the West Midlands, Warwickshire area actually.

[Host] – So to get my head around this then, you've got Knowles who's manufacturing these weapons and then you've got Houston and you've got Hardy, who are selling these weapons on to the criminal underworld?

[DCI Adas] – Our case was that Houston was forwarding them on to the criminal underworld and, if you like, Hardy was coordinating the supply from the East Midlands down to Houston and they were then being distributed from there.

[Host] – So they were the three key players in this investigation?

[DCI Adas] – Yeah, they were.

[Host] – And when did it all come to a head? I think we've actually got some body-worn footage of that moment when armed police stopped a van in Measham.

[Police bodycam footage] – Do not move! Do not move!

[Host] – Tell us about that clip there, that was quite a fascinating discovery from that stop, wasn’t there?

[DCI Adas] – Certainly was, it was a pivotal moment for our investigation. As you see from the clip, we intercepted the van in the Measham area. It was intercepted by armed officers and upon searching that vehicle, we found a cardboard box. Within that cardboard box were four assassination kits, with the handgun, each had ten rounds of ammunition, a silencer with a magazine, of course, to hold the ammunition as well.

[Host] – Quite the discovery.

[DCI Adas] – It certainly was, yeah and that was absolutely significant for us in the investigation.

[Host] – And that van stop, did that help bring the key players to a head?

[DCI Adas] – Yeah, it certainly did. Soon afterwards we made arrests of Hardy and Knowles and later, Steven Houston was also arrested as well.

[Host] – How did you tie those to the guns?

[DCI Adas] – So, we were able to forensically link Ronald Knowles to the firearms found within the van and earlier that day, we had evidence that the box that was ultimately found in the van had, in fact, been in Gary Hardy's address while Gary Hardy was present as was Ronald also, so we had strong evidence to link them in that respect.

[Host] – Wow, so that van stop was a really pivotal moment for you?

[DCI Adas] – It was significant and later that day when we arrested Ronald Knowles, he was caught red handed, if you like.

[Host] – He was burning everything wasn’t he?

[DCI Adas] – Well, he was burning the evidence and as I've described earlier on, there was a real treasure trove, frankly, of evidence when we found the out house.

[Host] – And you were talking about Knowles living quite a modest living. He was unemployed. He didn't live in a fancy house. He was creating these weapons in the back of his garden, essentially. How did Hardy compare to Knowles?

[DCI Adas] – Yeah, that's a really good question because they couldn't have been more different in that respect. I think it's a good way to describe Knowles, very modest lifestyle. Hardy was the complete opposite. He lived in a nice house in a nice area, had access to nice vehicles, and was leading a cash rich lifestyle.

[Host] – And I don’t want to complicate matters any more, but there was another known criminal who had bought these assassination kits, a guy called Jason Hill. Tell me a little bit about what you found out there.

[DCI Adas] – Yeah, so Jason Hill lived in the Derbyshire area and when he was arrested for another matter, police officers found a safe hidden in his back garden. We found two loaded firearms within that safe. We did some work forensically around the house and were able to link those to Ronald Knowles and to Ronald Knowles’ factory.

[Host] – It is so surprising, isn’t it? Because this could be a very different story today if you hadn't uncovered this gang.

[DCI Adas] – Yeah, absolutely. If he’d have gone undetected then lives, I believe, would have been lost. Whether it had been locally or more further afield nationally and we will never know the true extent of how many lives we have saved through conducting this investigation but it’s my belief it’s significant.

[Host] – Absolutely fantastic, and I mean, there was some tough prison sentences, weren’t there? I mean, I'll just go through it myself. The gang received more than 65 years of jail time. Hardy, 23 years. Houston, 25 years. Knowles, 13 years and six months. How does that make you feel?

[DCI Adas] – Really proud and I'm really happy with the sentences from the court. I think it sends a really clear message to other criminals engaged in firearms activity. I would also like to mention that the reason Knowles’ sentence was lower than Hardy and Houston was that he pleaded guilty earlier in proceedings.

[Host] – Is that because the evidence was so overwhelming?

[DCI Adas] – That's my belief, yes. Whereas Hardy in Houston elected to go to trial.

[Host] – Fantastic, and what were these individuals like when they were in custody? I mean, you obviously spent some time with them.

[DCI Adas] – Yeah, I didn't, but my team did and they were interviewed at length, as you would expect that we would have done and interestingly, when we asked them the questions around the investigation, they answered no comment to all questions, but now that is their right, that is their legal right.

But obviously from my perspective I was anxious to know if there were any of these kits out there that we could ultimately, you know, recover and try in the process to protect life.

[Host] – But they said nothing?

[DCI Adas] – No.

[Host] – How would you describe these individuals?

[DCI Adas] – As, certainly in respect of Hardy in Houston, as career criminals and frankly had no regard at all for others.

[Host] – Ruthless?

[DCI Adas] – Ruthless I think is a good description insofar as by making these, as I said earlier, people were only going to use them and possess them, in my view, for one reason, to kill, and to be involved in the manufacture and supply of that I think is terrible.

[Host] – And as you said, obviously, when you got them in custody they all said ‘no comment’, which they can do. Does that hinder? I mean, I'm just interested and I'm sure our viewers and our listeners are, does that hinder an investigation when suspects do say ‘no comment’, ‘no comment’?

[DCI Adas] – In this investigation that we're talking about, no it didn't because of the weight of the evidence that we had gathered in respect of this group, it didn't do so no.

[Host] – So, quite an investigation. What does this investigation mean to the public? How would you sum it up?

[DCI Adas] – Thankfully, gun crime in Nottinghamshire is rare.

[Host] – That's good to know.

[DCI Adas] – Yeah, absolutely. But, it goes without saying that these firearms were dangerous and in the wrong hands, it would have led to absolutely catastrophic consequences.

[Host] – I think you said it really clearly before, you'll never know as a detective how many lives you've saved by recovering these weapons, because, as you say, if they got into the wrong hands, you know, innocent members of the public could find themselves seriously harmed or worse, killed.

[DCI Adas] – Yeah, absolutely. That is a sad reality of the weapons and people that use these weapons are not trained, they're not qualified to use them either. So, they can be used indiscriminately as well and as you say, too many lives continue to be lost through gun crime.

[Host] – Well it's great that you managed to get the result that you wanted and finally, you know, what does this investigation mean to you? I mean, some members of the public might not know the painstaking amount of hours that detectives have to go through to finally get this type of investigation into court. Tell me, what's it been like? How have you coped with it?

[DCI Adas] – Long hours. Not just by me, but my team. Some sleepless nights, if I'm honest. However, to get an outcome like this is hugely rewarding. Not only for me, but for my team and I do want to pay tribute to the detectives and staff that worked on this investigation because it was a team effort and without them, we would not have got the fantastic outcome in terms of recovering the weapons and the sentences.

[Host] – Well, you just have and I'm sure they'll be watching this podcast. Detective Chief Inspector Mark Adas, thank you so much for joining us today.

And if you like what you heard, there are going to be more episodes of The Interview Room across our Spotify and YouTube channels, with a new episode uploaded every month. But that's the end of today's episode. Thank you so much for joining us, and I hope to see you again soon.