Dramatic moment in UK when armed police arrest gun smuggler in the act
The man behind Britain's most notorious gun-smuggling operation, involving lb100,000-worth of weapons, has been jailed for 30 years.
Harry Shilling, 26, from Swanley in Kent, will serve a minimum of 20 years. He has also been put on licence for a further five years.
He and his gang smuggled 31 machine guns and more than 1,500 rounds of ammunition into the UK by boat.
The guns came from the same source as those used in the Charlie Hebdo attack.
Gunmen killed 12 people and wounded seven when they launched an assault on the satirical magazine's offices in Paris in January last year.
The Old Bailey trial was held amid almost unprecedented security.
Judge Michael Topolski QC told Shilling: "I'm entirely satisfied the truth is you were the man in charge of this carefully planned, well-funded and sophisticated organisation."
He went on to say that this "dangerous young man" had been motivated by a desire to "maintain, protect and expand" his drug business.
Michael Defraine, 30, from Bexleyheath, south-east London, was also found guilty of gun smuggling and possessing firearms with intent to endanger life. He was given 27 years in jail, plus five years on extended licence.
Shilling and Defraine were part of a gang that brought the weapons on a boat from France to Kent last August.
National Crime Agency (NCA) detectives had them under surveillance and made what they say was the largest-ever weapons seizure on the UK mainland.