THREE men have been jailed – including a Rugby man – for conspiring to transfer or sell ammunition after being caught with over 50 rounds.
Police swooped on the car park of a Wolverhampton pub in March last year as the trio attempted to sell the bag of ammunition.
The trio discarded the bag and tried to escape. One attempted to drive out of the car park through a disused exit but didn’t anticipate the concrete bollard blocking his exit, and another was found in nearby bushes.
David Dixon, 38, of Biart Place, Rugby, and Rundeep Bagga, 33, of Fillongley Road, Meriden pleaded guilty to conspiring to transfer or sell ammunition.
They were respectively sentenced to two and a half years and three years in prison at Birmingham Crown Court last Friday (February 23).
The third man, Michael Osbourne, 38, of Barnett Close, Wolverhampton, had been on bail for a drugs offence in January last year when he was caught with four kilos of cocaine, worth a street value of £140,000.
He pleaded guilty to conspiring to transfer or sell ammunition and was found guilty of the drugs offence after a trial in July last year. He was jailed for a total of 12 years.
Detective constable Steve Oldbury, of West Midlands Police’s regional organised crime unit, said: “Our operation led to a large quantity of drugs and ammunition never making it onto the streets of the West Midlands where they could have done some real damage.
“This is the latest success in our efforts to combat organised crime and to take deadly weapons off the region’s streets.”
West Midlands Police has warned they will ‘take firm action’ against anyone involved in this type of organised crime.
The region’s Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson has recently prioritised the issue after a sharp rise in violent crime.
