Soldiers jailed over guns racket


The guns were smuggled out of Iraq for sale in Germany
Two soldiers who smuggled guns out of Iraq intending to sell them to army colleagues have been jailed.

Lance Corporal Michael White, 28, was jailed for 10 years and Corporal Anthony Creswick, 25, given nine-and-half years.

Both men from the 3rd Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment, along with Lance Corporal Brent Campbell who bought a gun, were also thrown out of the army.

The Court Martial at Catterick Garrison in North Yorks ran for six weeks.

Lance Corporal Campbell was jailed for 18 months for buying a prohibited weapon.

Judge Advocate Colin Burn told White that peddling weapons within a military compound was "just about as serious as it gets".

The pair were involved in smuggling illegal weapons bought on the black market in Basra when their unit, then known as the Duke of Wellington's Regiment, was on duty in Iraq between October 2004 and April 2005.

The court heard one theory was the guns were brought to Germany in the fuel tanks of returning vehicles and later smuggled into barracks at Osnabruck.

The court, made up of six officers and senior NCOs, sitting at the military court centre in North Yorkshire, heard there was even a catalogue which included photographs and descriptions of the weapons available for purchase.

Drugs payment

The plot fell apart when other soldiers in the unit became aware of the guns being offered for sale and arrests followed.

White, who admitted selling illegal weapons and ammunition along with supplying cocaine, was the main prosecution witness.

He described accepting drugs as payment for two pistols. He then divided the drug into bags and sold it to other soldiers.

Creswick was found guilty of selling prohibited weapons, but acquitted on a charge of supplying a Class A drug.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "It's a shame that the good work of the battalion while in Iraq has been overshadowed by this on-going court martial."

unfortunately the supply of guns come from so many sources, ( eastern Europe, replica guns converted to fire real ammo, and from illegal army sources.

the overwhelming majority of gun suppliers are white, but of course, as we know it's only a black problem..... ???!!

I agree with you on that one, BUT WHY IS THERE A DEMAND FOR IT from inner cities YOUTHS?

because most of the British newspapers are London-centric, you are given the impression that only black kids ( from london ) carry guns. remember when a certain police commissioner said that muggings within greater London were disproportionately represented by blacks...that gave the impression that ALL MUGGINGS IN THE U.K. ARE DONE BY BLACKS, another fallacy….

With out boring you explaining the socio-geographical reasoning as to why blacks are disproportionately represented, I’ll just say that not everything is black and white.

MP right on all accounts but where I would differ with you is the issue about whether guns is a black problem. It is a black problem culturally and statistically. You are right white people run the guns business and always have. The largest consumers of those weapons were whites and anybody who grew up in my manor at that time who knew anything about anything knew that. But guns then was essentially used for graft or work or protection or defensive purposes...People got shot but not common and usually pay back for a serious liberty and white boys sorting out their business. In other words for disciplinary purposes.

But guns were very tightly regulated and I been with brothers to get guns back in the day and the man make it clear from the off what these weapons are to be used for and if anybody step out of line..the gun they have borrowed or hired to you aint enough to stop the amount of guys with guns who will be paying your or your family a visit. So shit was regulated tight and most of those weapons were never fired.

If you actually use the gun then it was usually disposed and the user would have to pay the full price of a replacement weapon and 'taxed' on that.

What has changed today is largely cultural and culture is always held in place by structures and if you study my manor and see how it has changed demographically there is no way usually those structures hold..because most of them were kept in places by the white boys who controlled the guns. As they lost influence on their local manors and moved out to the sticks and you will see this in South London, East London amongst all the known hard core firms it created a vacuum.

So whilst guns were used for graft or disciplinary purposes when they came into the black community they moved from essentially work tools into the hands of kids basically where matters of ego, power or just temperament outside the traditional norms which shaped how these things were used. The way black guys use guns is completely different than those black guys then or white guys. I know hard core East London bone fide gangsters who I grew up with tight tell me Fred no disrespect bruv those black guys are just fxxxng arse holes the way the use guns just pricks...and that is a fact..Black males today pull gun on people for joke..Woman refuse to dance with them gun draw, man want to push in front of you at the petrol station gun draw....

Hence the numbers of black youth killed by guns is far higher than whites and that makes it a black cultural problem no matter how you want to twist it..The number of young black women or children killed by guns is far higher than whites and look at the differences in population size. No argument. So in short far more safer to live amongst white with guns than black folk. When the last time anybody hear of any white folks going to a funeral and spraying people with machine gun fire..Most of these firsts are committed by black people. Going into a christening and killing people..When is the last time you hear a white boy doing that and shall I go on.

There is a set of self destructive behaviours culturally which black people and young ones in particular be they male or female in another context which is about projecting our anger and hatred and wanted to excecrise some sick power rush which is always a the expense of other black people. Study in America how long those boys been strapped up and compare the body count of black people compared to white cops who they have every moral justification to be piling up corpses every month. But no..Hence why I took a little pleasure when those Jamaican posse's started to go to Tamp and them places in the US and kill white cops as fast as they would blink at them and frighten the shit out of them. Why because these aint Jim Crow negros or come from that socialisation and will take out a white boy even faster.

Nope this is a black problem yep with white structural roots no doubt..but we are the ones getting poor burying our dead and funerals aint cheap.

@DG..Guns and the spread of guns as a weapon of choice has a particular logical dyanmic which predicts their growth. I don't see guns being reduced in terms of access to them. Guns are here and once guns become establshed in a culture I know of no culture which has been able to rid itself of them. Because guns and their use has a particular infallable logic which makes me say from long time if I was a youth today and living in certain areas with no means or even disire to leave my community..I would want access to a gun if I was doing similar things to what I was doing at that age, because of cultural change..

Guns are a quintessential weapon. It is rational and efficient and minimises risk compared to other forms of weapons and therefore requires less to use. While the cultural psychology of young males is relatively constant in so far as they are more violent and prone to all kinds of shit until the reach maturity and their anti social and offending patterns drop significantly. Matters of unrestrained ego, trying to establish ones position in the masculine hierarchy etc are all common that social group. When you introduce guns into that mix then you have a night mare waiting to happen. I reviewed a book by a criminologists who is a top American guns crime expert and he said what I have said based on life experience..'Guns turn routine scuffles into potentially fatal events...'.. As one reggae tune said every little ting u just run fi him gun...'

So back in the day beefs were settled physically which created greater stability and social order. Look how many times do you think you can fight a man and he beat your arse day in and day out before you get the idea or you bredrins tell you to rest it if you haven't come to sense yourself. Ego or no ego...You just have to live with it and no your place in the order of things.Simple as....

You can use knife..but problem is this knives are a common currency and nuff man have them. Furthermore, from experience a man who cannot fight you without a knife is highly unlikely to be able to beat a man with one, unless he is extremely lucky or more commonly attack someone from behind or from the side and stab them. If you don't kill him which rarely occurred you know what would happen to you is going to be even worse...So this system of conflict resolution always leads to stability. Stabbing a man from behind is no way to secure your authority or position and if anything you will have brothers lining up to take you out, especially if it is is crew or family. Nobody ever secures a position in that culture through one act of that type.

Now there is no normative regulation or social hierarchy designed on anything which creates cultural stability. Any man can be the boss for a small price and have five minutes power compared to in our day a don is don and that's that. Those brothers rarely fought anyone once they were establish, unless some fool usually an outsider make the mistake and is taught hard lessons. So once guns are available particular young males will want them, because you are now in a very unstable environment which creates anxiety and fear where nobody can protect you on any given day...Your family cannot protect you if one of these boys take set on you..or decide to tax you..

Spoke at a black man's thing last week and one of organisers told me about something that happened to one of the young guys who was supposed to attend and this is in West London in a part where most folks don't even no there is black people living there and nuff things is going down in that area. My man said the brother stopped for another brother who he thought his car had broken down or something and wind down his window and my boy just push the matic in his face and tell him to come out. Took all his clothes and everything he had, including his trainers and phone etc, and then drove off with his car.

Now while some man will say boy bad luck...others will say yeah try it with me and find out. and how you feel about it or what option you take depends on your personality and sense of morality. But I know how I feel about what I worked for and took white people's shit for for some lazy arse sorry mother who think she going to jack me like that for the story to end there.

So in my view guns aint gonna done for now. As I said in my something I published on this if you study the rise of guns in western culture and governance without them the white man would have nothing and he aint giving them up for nobody, especially the nuclear guns. At the same time he is going around the world trying to banduloo any country who he don't sanction trying to stop them from protecting themselves so he maintains superiority. No sensible or rational man would except that and the same rationale applies to the streets. Weapons give power and many will never allow that once it is established currency to deprive themselves of that capability if necessary and they would be foolish to if you understand the thinking...