Killers haunting the streets of Liverpool can hire lethal weapons for just £200 a night.
An arsenal of pistols and stolen shotguns lie hidden across the city, ready for order via encrypted apps.
Chilling details of gun trade on a near industrial scale emerged after the killing of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel shook the nation.
A Sunday Mirror investigation found handguns smuggled from Eastern Europe are being converted into the cheapest deadly weapons seen in years. And County Lines drugs gangs are raiding farms to steal “shotties” – shotguns – to order.
In a chilling exchange, one informant told us: “Shotties are the weapons everyone wants in Liverpool.”
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Another underworld source with links to a gun-running gang in the North West revealed: “If you want a gun you can get one very easily.
“Stashed across the city are all kinds of shooters. Shotties, nines (9mm pistols) even submachine guns – MP5s, Heckler & Kochs. Ex-squaddies bring them over from Northern Ireland. You just need to put the word out and can get one in a day or two.”
Makarov pistols designed to fire CS gas are sneaked into the UK from Bulgaria converted to fire live rounds. “It’s very easy,” the source added.
“You drill out the barrel and convert it with live ammunition. They’re buying them for less than £200, converting them in factories and selling them on for two and a half bags (thousand).”
Crooks who can’t afford to buy one outright can borrow a gun for a night for £200-£300, sources said.
The arsenal – thought to be hidden at allotments and in lockups – includes Slovakian-made Grand Power and Zoraki pistols, smuggled across the continent.
While most Merseyside shootings involve handguns, there has been a surge in the use of shotguns.
Teenagers running County Lines drug teams in rural areas grab farmers’ legal firearms while they are out in the field.
The weapons are delivered to city drug bosses who use them to intimidate and maim rivals – or sell them for up to £4,000-a-go.
A string of farms in Lancashire, Cumbria, Shropshire and Wales have been plundered.
One 65-year-old farmer was shot in the leg as balaclava-clad raiders nicked four shotguns, ammunition, jewellery and cash from his pile in Aughton, Lancs.
In Swansea Valley, South Wales, two 12-bore shotguns and two powerful air rifles were stolen during a house burglary.
Liverpool dealer Jonathan Blair, 25, was later found with the weapons, cash and £29,000-worth of crack cocaine and heroin.
The haul was part of a major County Lines operation peddling Class A drugs from Liverpool to Wales.
A source said: “Lads who are sent out grafting in the country don’t just deal crack and smack.
“They hit farms as well because there’s big money to be made.
“There’s machinery which can tear cash machines out of walls, there’s sheep which can be slaughtered and sold – and there’s guns.
“If you want to a hire a shottie you’ll pay around a monkey (£500).
“To buy one it’s closer to £4,000, but a lot of people know they’re nicked and won’t pay full whack.
“The good thing is there are two tubes so they don’t leave marks on the bullet or the gun. Makes it much harder for ballistics experts to trace them.”
Denis Moran, a retired police officer who was attached to Merseyside Police ’s crack anti-gang Matrix unit, said: “Young men are going out to deal drugs in Cheshire, Cumbria and Shropshire, and they are being tasked with stealing shotguns for use on city streets.”
Notorious drug gangs under scrutiny include Bootle’s Fernhill mob, fearsome dealers behind a wave of attacks.
One source said: “It’s a chaotic picture. If someone wants to buy a kilo and start up a crew they can.
“But if they’re stepping on toes then there’s going to be problems. It’s happening all over the city. And people are getting shot.”
In March and April, police found loaded sawn-off shotguns, ammunition, grenades and a stash of cocaine in two houses.
One shotgun stashed in wasteland in Kirkby was traced to a gang which used it in several hits on rivals.
Two more were found in an abandoned allotment in Crosby in March.
Violence has even spilled over the border, with a spate of attacks on towns in North Wales.
In 2020, Merseyside Police launched a Firearms Investigations Unit to tackle gun crime. It coincided with a fall in the number of shootings.
But firearm offences are on the rise again amid a battle for the drugs trade.
In March a masked gang on E-scooters fired several shots at an innocent 15-year-old girl waiting for a bus in Toxteth. She suffered devastating injuries and the suspected shooter was later arrested.
In May a gunman on an electric bike shot at a house in the Dingle area, near Toxteth, as people sat inside.
A month later shots were fired from an E-scooter in Everton before a man was dropped off in hospital with gunshot wounds. The targets had a lucky escape.
Tragically, Sam Rimmer didn’t. On August 16 he was walking in the same area when he was shot in the chest by gunmen who fled on electric bikes. Sam, 22, died in hospital.
And last Sunday, 28-year-old council worker Ashley Dale, 28, was shot dead in her garden in the neighbourhood of Old Swan.
Ex-Merseyside drugs squad and regional crime squad detective Steve Kyle says: “There’s a new generation of feral, violent gangs who’ll do anything to get what they want.
“They have no respect for law and order, no respect for the communities they live in or the families within them.
“And police are powerless to stop it. There’s no one policing the streets, so burglars or dealers are left to their own devices.
“That’s why people are getting shot with impunity and that’s why you’re getting unimaginable tragedies like what happened to that little girl.”
