An online gun dealer who stashed 26 firearms and 102 rounds of ammunition in his three-year-old daughter’s bedroom has been jailed for eight years.
Darren Dixon, 32, was caught with the guns, explosives, gunpowder, ammunition, smoke grenades, deadly ricin seeds and garrottes in a raid of his home in Kentish Town, north London in October 2019.
Officers also found fake Metropolitan Police and Interpol warrant card IDs, a counterfeit search warrant, Met body armour, a rejected application to join the force, and plans showing the address of a fine art dealer and a valuable painting.
Darren Dixon, who stashed 26 firearms and 102 rounds of ammunition in his three-year-old daughter’s bedroom, has been jailed for eight years
The online gun dealer was caught with guns, explosives, gunpowder, ammunition, smoke grenades, deadly ricin seeds and garrottes
Dixon kept five handguns with loaded magazines, a sawn-off shotgun and a pump-action shotgun in his daughter’s bedroom
Officers found a number of weapons in the October 2019 raid including a knife (pictured)
Dixon kept five handguns with loaded magazines, a sawn-off shotgun and a pump-action shotgun in his daughter’s bedroom, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.
He smuggled blank-shooting pistols into the country and converted them into deadly firearms using a toolkit.
The army and MI5 reject was jailed for eight years at Southwark Crown Court on Friday after earlier pleading guilty to 15 charges, including possession of firearms and making an explosive substance.
Matthew Perfect, NCA firearms threat lead, said: ‘Dixon was a significant importer and supplier of weapons who was found with an extremely dangerous haul in his home.
‘This investigation removed these lethal firearms from circulation, along with the risk that they could end up in the hands of organised criminals.’
A sawn off shotgun was found at the home of the firearms supplier who kept an arsenal of lethal weapons in his house
The army and MI5 reject was jailed for eight years at Southwark Crown Court on Friday after earlier pleading guilty
He smuggled blank-shooting pistols into the country and converted them into deadly firearms using a toolkit
Investigators identified Dixon in a probe with Spanish police into people buying guns online.
He bought six firearms from a Spanish website and three from one in Slovenia in the month before his arrest – six which were sold on by Dixon on another website.
Also seized during the police search was a notebook containing a handwritten recipe for making gunpowder along with the ingredients.
Other items seized included balaclavas, cans of CS gas, black tactical gloves and the ricin seeds.
Dixon used the website Gunstar to sell the blank firing weapons that he had not converted to collectors across the country, while keeping the lethal firearms for himself.
Investigators identified Dixon in a probe with Spanish police into people buying guns online
Officers also found fake Metropolitan Police and Interpol warrant card IDs and a counterfeit search warrant
Dixon used the website Gunstar to sell the blank firing weapons that he had not converted to collectors across the country
Officers also found plans containing the address of a fine art dealer along with details of a valuable painting, the court heard
When he was arrested by officers from the Organised Crime Partnership (OCP) – a team of NCA and Met officers – Dixon said: ‘It has become a bit of an addiction with these guns.’
Officers also found plans containing the address of a fine art dealer along with details of a valuable painting, the court heard.
There were Post-it notes giving details of the dealer and his wife’s movements.
The prosecutor said that could be seen as evidence of Dixon conducting research for future criminal activity targeting the fine art business.
But Jeremy Dein, defending, said: ‘The business to do with the art, we are instructed, was Mr Dixon pontificating about how if he had succeeded in becoming a police officer he would have investigated criminal activity of that nature.
Dixon was arrested by officers from the Organised Crime Partnership (OCP) – a team of NCA and Met officers
Detectives found a toolkit in Dixon’s bedroom for converting the weapons into guns, along with a sawn-off shotgun
A taser was among many weapons found at his house during the raid
Other items seized included balaclavas, cans of CS gas, black tactical gloves and the ricin seeds
Officers said it was ‘shocking’ the weapons were being hidden where Dixon’s child was sleeping
‘It was him dreaming of becoming a police officer which we know is precisely how he was thinking before, during and after his repeated application to serve as a police officer.’
Met Detective Inspector Richard Smith said: ‘Dixon was found in possession of an alarming amount of lethal weapons – with some of them even shockingly being hidden where his child slept.
‘We know that Dixon went on to sell some of these illegal firearms.
‘Thankfully this intricate investigation by the Organised Crime Partnership resulted in 26 firearms and a host of other dangerous weapons being seized, which ultimately means that they will never be used to harm someone.
‘Firearms have absolutely no place in London and we are committed to robustly targeting both those who carry them and those who supply them.’