Moment armed cops arrest man making ‘assassination kits’ for gangsters in garden | UK | News

Police drone footage captured the dramatic moment a 64-year-old weapons collector who made ‘assassination kits’ for gangsters in his garden, desperately tried to torch a “treasure trove” of evidence. Panic-stricken Ronald Knowles desperately tried to set fire to the material he used to create killing kits for a drugs kingpin to sell to his network of crooks.

Knowles curated 80 “assassination kits” in a converted outbuilding at his home in Alfreton, Derbyshire, which included at least 33 firearms, converted from replica pistols, bullets, as well as silencers and latex gloves. He made the lethal arsenal in his makeshift workshop, before passing them to notorious ‘drugs general’ Gary Hardy, 61, who sold them from his Ravenshead home in Nottinghamshire. Now police have released dramatic CCTV footage showing the moment armed officers swooped on his home as they caught him setting alight to a hoard of evidence.

The drone footage shows Knowles step out of the outbuilding to surrender, holding his hands into the air as armed officers made their way into his home, before they took him into custody and marched him away.

A gun factory producing the “lethal” self-loading pistols, was discovered as part of an investigation into Hardy by Nottinghamshire Police and the East Midlands Special Operations Unit (EMSOU).

During the raid, police also discovered lathes and a drill used by the weapons collector to make the silencers and convert the pistols and ammunition, as well as throwing stars, machetes, crossbows and air weapons, and around 1,000 bullets.

Detectives linked the guns to both Hardy and Knowles and swooped on Knowles’ property, where they say he was found in his back garden setting fire to evidence.

Knowles and Hardy were convicted of serious firearms offences at Nottingham Crown Court and are due to be sentenced at a later date.

Police began to make arrests after stopping a van in Measham, Leicesteshire, in August 2023, where they seized a box containing four ‘lethal’ self-loading pistols.

Each weapon had been individually packaged with a silencer, blue nitrile gloves and ten rounds of live ammunition.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Adas said: “The bullets had been converted from blank firing to live.

“If discharged they would effectively expand on impact. These were lethal assassination kits.

“I call them that because they were individually packaged. The firearms were designed to kill. It is highly concerning.

“With the amount of ammunition that we found, that was in our belief destined for conversion, another 80 assassination kits could have been converted.

“It was a significant find for us. This is the largest firearms manufacturing operation that I have ever seen, and to my knowledge one of the biggest we’ve seen in the East Midlands, if not wider”.

Police launched a probe into Hardy following his release from a 20-year prison sentence, which eventually unearthed that an operation he led had been supplying lethal weapons to organised crime groups across the West Midlands and Essex.

Police say the assassination kits were also passed to career criminal Stephen Houston, 64, in Warwickshire who sold them to underworld gangs.

Police say one of the weapons was used by drug dealer Jason Hill, 23, to murder rival Owen Fairclough in June 2023.

When police searched Hill’s home they found a safe buried in the garden containing two guns with silencers and two dozen 9mm bullets.

A court heard police believe Houston supplied him with the weapons which had been converted by Knowles.

Det Ch Insp Addis added: “Each handgun had been threaded to fit a silencer, which allowed the gun to be used discreetly at close quarters, meaning any potential targets would be lucky to escape with their lives.”

Each assassination kit included 10 rounds of converted ammunition and the seizure of more than 800 blank firing rounds and nearly 800 lead pellets indicated the group had the potential to supply up to 80 further firearms packages.

“The full impact of this investigation will never be seen – that’s because we are unable to count the number of lives we may have saved.”

In September 2008, Hardy gained notoriety when he was jailed for 20 years following in a major drugs trial that was guarded by armed police.

That jury heard Hardy was one of three “drugs generals” supplying heroin and amphetamines to dealers in Nottinghamshire.

He owned a fleet of luxury cars and more than 40 properties as part of a string of businesses funded by smuggled heroin into the UK in lorry tyres.

The lucrative profits from selling the drugs were then split with John Dawes, and his brother and international drug trafficker Robert.

Knowles, Hardy, Houston and Hill were convicted of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.

Knowles, Hardy and Houston will also be sentenced for conspiracy to convert a blank firing gun into a firearm, and conspiracy to sell or transfer a firearm.