Police had never seen such a weapon before
What is believed to be the first 3D-printed machine gun ever seized by British police has been pictured after being presented as evidence in a criminal trial.
The fully functional submachine gun, identified as an FGC-9, 9mm Luger carbine, was found alongside eight Parabellum calibre cartridges, Bradford Crown Court was told.
The illegal, plastic weapon had an image of an arm holding a curved sword with what appears to be blood dripping from its blade imprinted on its side.
Christopher Gill, 35, Sibusiso Moyo, 41, Majeeb Rehman, 46, are on trial after police found the gun in a BMW, on Rooley Lane, near the outskirts of Bradford, West Yorkshire.
Officers discovered the loaded weapon shortly after 7pm on May 17 in the stationary vehicle, which the court heard belonged to Rehman.
Another partially assembled gun, created on a 3D printer, was found in Gill’s attic at his home on Dick Lane, Bradford, with a lower receiver, a stock and three springs.
When the Luger carbine was passed around jurors on Friday, Stephen Wood KC, prosecuting, warned: “Please don’t pull the trigger or move any of the parts.”
Wood told the jury that a trained police officer who later inspected the 3D-printed gun said he’d never seen such a weapon before.
And the prosecutor went on to allege that Rehman was “caught red-handed” transporting the weapon.
Andre Horne, firearms and ballistics expert, told the court that most of the FGC-9, 9mm Luger carbine recovered from Rehman’s car had been produced on a 3D printer.
He said other parts had been homemade, while the court also heard it was successfully test-fired using a 9mm cartridge.
The jury was told that Moyo’s DNA matched swabs taken from seized items, and Wood alleged that he was “intimately involved in the manufacturing process.”
The main part of the weapon found at the home on Dick Lane was a 3D printed partially assembled 9mm Luger FGC-9 carbine, while the other section was the lower receiver to an FGC-9 carbine.
Moyo, of Elloughton Grove, Hull, and Gill, of Dick Lane, Bradford pleaded not guilty to conspiracy with others unknown to manufacture prohibited firearms.
They also deny two charges of having a prohibited weapon for sale or transfer, while Moyo pleaded not guilty to possession of an identity document with improper intention.
Rehman, 46, of Central Avenue, Little Horton, Bradford, denies conspiracy to transfer a prohibited firearm - an FGC-9 hybrid carbine sub-machine gun - to persons unknown.
He also denies possessing ammunition, eight 9mm Luger cartridges, without a firearms certificate.
The trial continues.
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