London organised crime gang jailed for supplying criminals with guns and ammunition

Members of a London-based organised crime gang have been jailed for supplying deadly handguns and ammunition to criminals.

The three gang members received prison terms totaling more than 29 years.

Artem Kuts

Artem Kuts, 39, who is from the Isle of Dogs, was jailed for 15 years after being found guilty on gun charges in May.

Oliver Mark, 40, from Stratford in south east London was handed an eight year prison sentence.

The two men were arrested as part of a National Crime Agency investigation into the supply of firearms.

NCA surveillance teams watched as Kuts left his home carrying a brown paper bag on 12 October last year, and got into a black BMW owned by Oliver Mark.

A third man, 26 year old Alexander Georgiev, was seen getting in and out of the same car several times carrying the brown paper bag.

Oliver Mark

He pleaded guilty at an earlier court hearing and was jailed for six years.

Armed officers surrounded the BMW and found the bag lying in the rear passenger footwell.

It contained a Russian brand Baikal self-loading pistol and eight rounds of Makarov ammunition. Mark and Kuts were both arrested for possession of a firearm.

Georgiev was arrested for conspiring to supply a firearm minutes later, as he attempted to flee in a blue BMW.

Officers then searched Kuts’ home and found two more Baikals and 14 rounds of ammunition, which had been hidden in the garden.

They had been packaged heavily and wedged in the corner between the wall and a garden storage unit.

Alexander Georgiev

The National Crime Agency’s Regional Head of Investigations, Jacque Beer said: “Illegal firearms drive serious violence, intimidation and coercion in our communities.

“Seizing handguns like the ones found on the Isle of Dogs, with the help of our partners at the Metropolitan Police Service, protects the public from this grave threat.

“The NCA works tirelessly to stop criminals like Kuts, Mark and Georgiev obtaining firearms and it is only right they should serve long jail sentences for their crimes.”

Authorities are convicted the guns would have been heading into the hands of criminal gangs and used in deadly violence on UK streets.