Surrey: Amnesty for blank guns converted to live firearms
It is legal for anyone aged over 18 in the UK to by a TVBF without a licence unless they are readily convertible.The weapons are made with a fully-blocked barrel and only fire blank cartridges. When fired, gas is emitted from the top of the gun.They are also sold with at least half of their surface painted in a bright colour but criminals will often paint them black to look like a real gun.Since 2021, UK police have seized roughly 800 TVBFs which were converted to fire live ammunition. Retay, Ekol, Ceonic and Blow TVBF brands can be easily converted using simple tools. They were also used in four killings in the UK since 2022, according to the NCA.The guns can be handed in at the following police stations:Surrey:GuildfordStainesSussex:ChichesterWorthingCrawleyBrightonEastbourneUckfieldHastings
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BBC News
6 hours ago
- BBC News
Manchester: Men jailed after smuggling £9m worth of cannabis into NI
Two men who smuggled cannabis worth £9m from Manchester into Northern Ireland by hiding it in wooden flooring have been nationals Yudong Ouyang, 32, and Gary Hon, 26, from Manchester, cultivated large crops of cannabis and used Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) to transport it by men targeted Northern Ireland as they knew they could charge a premium price, according to the National Crime Agency (NCA).The flooring was hollowed out to create a void where the pair could hide the drugs before transporting it in pallets. Hon was arrested by NCA officers in February 2022 and Ouyang was arrested in December 2023. Both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class B drugs at Manchester Crown was sentenced to three years and one month in prison and Ouyang received three years and six months. Almost 40 deliveries into NI The NCA said the men sent messages in Mandarin between June 2019 and February 2020 and discussed cannabis, warehouse rentals and travel to Northern Ireland. Translations showed one of the men wrote: "I put the [drug] money on me, not in the car, so the sniffing dog could not get the smell."NCA investigators found there were up to 38 deliveries from Manchester to Belfast in that nine-month inner pallets of flooring were hollowed out to create a void where they could hide the drugs before organising shipping to Northern Ireland using a legitimate shipping agent who was unaware of the cannabis. Took selfies at cannabis farms The NCA said it is believed 50kg of cannabis was moved in each evidence also showed Ouyang regularly sent photos of cannabis, cannabis farms or selfies of him at the farms. His fingerprints and an invoice in his name were found at a cannabis farm raided as part of the Vinall, NCA operations manager, described the men as "key players" in a large scale cannabis supply operation."This organised crime group targeted Northern Ireland as their market where they knew their drugs would attract a premium price," he said."They attempted to make their operations appear legitimate but investigators unravelled their vast communications and movements showing they would often transport pallets back across to England so they could be reused for further importations."
BBC News
6 hours ago
- BBC News
Rotherham hacker who stole millions of people's data jailed
A cyber-criminal who hacked into the websites of international organisations and stole the login details of millions of people has been jailed for 20 months. Al-Tahery Al-Mashriky, 25, from Rotherham, was arrested by cyber-crime officers in August 2022, after they received intelligence from US law enforcement about extremist hacker groups, according to the National Crime Agency (NCA). He had stolen personal data that "could have enabled him to target and defraud millions of people," according to an NCA of Leonards Lane, pleaded guilty to nine offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and was jailed at Sheffield Crown Court on 15 August. NCA investigators who seized Al-Mashriky's laptop found he was in possession of personal data for more than four million Facebook users and had several documents containing usernames and passwords for services such as Netflix and officers were able to link him to hacker group the Yemen Cyber Army through social media and email court heard forensic analysis of Al-Mashriky's laptop and several phones found he had infiltrated a number of websites, including the Yemen Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Yemen Ministry of Security Media and an Israeli news gained unauthorised access to the websites, created hidden webpages containing his online monikers and messaging that furthered his religious and political ideology, according to the NCA. 'Significant disruption' Al-Mashriky would often target websites with low security, gaining recognition in the hacking community for the large number of pages he infiltrated, the NCA one of his many online aliases, he claimed on one cyber-crime forum that he had hacked into more than 3,000 websites during a three-month period in found that in February 2022, after hacking into the website for Israeli Live News, he accessed admin pages and downloaded the entire website. He had also hacked into two Yemeni government websites, deploying tools to scan for usernames and websites targeted by Al-Mashriky included faith websites in Canada and the USA, as well as the website for the California State Water director Paul Foster, head of the NCA's National Cyber Crime Unit, said: "Al-Mashriky's attacks crippled the websites targeted, causing significant disruption to their users and the organisations, just so that he could push the political and ideological views of the Yemen Cyber Army."He had also stolen personal data that could have enabled him to target and defraud millions of people."Cyber-crime can often appear faceless, with the belief that perpetrators hide in the shadows and can avoid detection. "However, as this investigation shows, the NCA has the technical capability to pursue and identify offenders like Al-Mashriky and bring them to justice." Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North
Belfast Telegraph
6 hours ago
- Belfast Telegraph
Cannabis worth £9m transported to NI hidden in pallets of flooring by Manchester crime gang
Two Chinese nationals who smuggled cannabis worth £9m hidden in wooden flooring from Manchester to Northern Ireland have been sentenced to over three years imprisonment each. Yudong Ouyang (32) and Gary Hon (26), who were living in the English city, had been discovered cultivating large crops of cannabis. An investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA) found they had been using HGVs to transport the Class B drug by ferry to NI where they knew they could charge a premium price. The pair were using encrypted messaging platforms between June 2019 and February 2020 where they organised secreting the drugs in large pallets of wooden flooring. The inner pallets had been hollowed out to create a void where they could hide the drugs before organising transport using a legitimate shipping agent who was unaware of the illegal commodity. NCA investigators found there were up to 38 deliveries made by the group from Manchester to Belfast in the nine-month period. Ouyang and Hon sent messages in Mandarin and translations showed that the contents discussed the cannabis trade, warehouse rentals and travel to NI. Other messages discussed how to hide the drugs and how they could secrete money when they returned to England.: "I put the d[drug] money on me, not in the car, so the sniffing dog could not get the smell," one stated. Phone evidence also showed Ouyang regularly sent photos of cannabis, cannabis farms, or selfies of him at the farms to the gang. His fingerprints and an invoice in his name were found at a cannabis farm raided as part of the operation. Officers said they pieced together messages and phone calls with CCTV movements that showed how the group were in touch with each other before attending storage units to move pallets. Despite attempting to appear as a legitimate business, investigators found that pallets were occasionally shipped back from Northern Ireland to Manchester and other locations in England where it is believed the hollow void could be used again for a further export. The standard weight of a pallet of the type used by Ouyang and Hon was 1,000kg. Evidence showed declarations made by the group always weighed the pallet at 1200 kilos, though it is believed 50 kilos of cannabis was moved in each delivery. Contact details on invoices from the legitimate storage businesses were also linked back to the men. Hon was arrested by NCA officers in February 2022 and Ouyang was detained in December 2023 before they appeared before Manchester Crown Court. Ouyang pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class B drugs in January 2024 and Hon pleaded guilty to the same offence on 25 June, 2025. They were sentenced at the same court on Monday. Hon received a prison sentence of three years and one month and Ouyang received a sentence of three years and six months.' Barry Vinall, NCA operations manager, said: "Ouyang and Hon were key players in this large scale cannabis supply operation, producing up to £9 million in profit and working closely with a wider group. "They attempted to make their operations appear legitimate but investigators unravelled their vast communications and movements showing they would often transport pallets back across to England so they could be reused for further importations. "This organised crime group targeted Northern Ireland as their market where they knew their drugs would attract a premium price. "Gangs like those run by Ouyang and Hon fuel an industry that sees people transported to the UK to work illegally in cannabis farms and taking action against those involved in these crimes is a priority for the NCA." Two other men, Luis Ieong and Ming Liang He were convicted in Northern Ireland after being arrested in Belfast in January 2020. They were stopped by PSNI officers while driving a vehicle carrying almost 11 kilos of cannabis and CCTV showed they had been at a storage unit in Belfast where boxes of flooring with the internal cavity were kept. A further 35.5 kilos of cannabis was found at the unit alongside £70,000 in cash. They were sentenced to 13 months' imprisonment each in December 2020.
