An Italian-made Beretta became the most prolific weapon ever traced, moving between crime groups in Merseyside after starting its journey in Scotland
Armed police raid the house where the “most criminally used firearm in Britain” was stashed
An Italian-made pistol branded “Link Series 4” was used in 19 shootings over seven years and became known as Britain’s “most criminally used firearm”. The Beretta 9000S self-loading handgun was the most prolific weapon ever traced by the authorities, who pieced together its movement between countries and organised crime groups.
The weapon was eventually discovered by police investigating a shooting in Kirkby, where a gunman was seen tucking a weapon into a hi-vs jacket, as officers observed a meeting in a children’s playground between a Wavertree gang boss and his former cellmate, whose name had previously been linked to the gun.
The seizure and safe recovery of the gun after years of devastation was enough to topple the Wavertree gang and resulted in the jailing of over a dozen people. As part of a series looking at Merseyside’s criminal history, the ECHO has taken a closer look at the firearm and its journey around the UK’s gangland.
The Beretta pistol, one of many mass-produced between 2000 and 2006, is a compact, semi-automatic pistol designed for concealed carry and to be a lethal firearm. The weapon featured heavily in the Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise film Minority Report from the early 2000s.
The particular weapon, which went on to become the most used firearm in the UK, was first used on the outskirts of Glasgow in the early months of 2010, with two discharges in the space of a week. But the weapon quickly moved south and was passed into the care of a Merseyside-based crime group.
The Beretta 9000S – the most criminally used firearm in Britain
Between 2010 and 2014 its use became increasingly prolific and violent. It was used in 16 shootings, predominantly in the Kirkby, West Derby and Anfield areas. The weapon was predominantly involved in “warning” shots being fired at homes or cars.
But it was also used to seriously injure people, including when a 15-year-old boy was shot in the leg in Liverpool’s Chinatown. Months later it was one of two guns used to shoot a 21-year-old man in the back in Tuebrook. And soon after that it was used to injure two men from Stockbridge Village who were in a Land Rover in West Derby.
As the gun’s involvement in a list of violent incidents grew, so did the police’s determination to remove it from the streets. At the time there were plenty of guns across Britain that had been linked to more than one shooting, but no other weapon had as long a history as the one at the centre of this investigation.
When a gun is traced to a catalogue of shootings it becomes known as a “linked series” firearm. Every individual weapon leaves a unique marking on the ammunition it fires and, as long as bullets can be recovered from the scene of a shooting, a specialist team can forensically tie the gun to previous discharges. The Beretta in question was dubbed “Link Series Four”.
The helmet worn by Mark Gaskill when he was repeatedly shot in Stevenson Street, Wavertree. The helmet saved his life. (Image: liverpool echo)
Over the course of the gun’s history, investigators were given 30 names of potential users. Some came up repeatedly, but the police could not locate the weapon. In the next three years the gun went silent – but re-emerged with devastating brutality in 2017 when Mark Gaskill was repeatedly shot on Stevenson Street in Wavertree.
Mr Gaskill was targeted and shot seven times, including in the head. He would have almost certainly died had it not been for his motorbike helmet. But the appearance of the gun in Wavertree proved a new obstacle for the police – it had almost certainly moved into the hands of a different crime group.
The probe became double-pronged – find the Wavertree shooter and find the gun. Despite being almost killed, Mr Gaskill provided no answers to investigators. But the name of James Lunt, a local man who headed the Wavo 420 organised crime group, continued to pop up.
He had previously been jailed in 2015 for heading up a network of cannabis farms. And a lookback at his time in prison provided a significant breakthrough for police – for one month in 2016 the imprisoned Lunt shared a cell with a man from Kirkby called Adam Bigley.
Adam Bigley
Bigley’s name had already been connected with the Beretta. And the working hypothesis for investigators was the pair’s relationship held the key to where the gun was.
On July 17, 2017 a group of males were seen on Wyllin Road in Kirkby before a witness recalled hearing three gunshots before the gang fled in a Ford Focus. The following day Lunt and Bigley exchanged messages, before arranging a meeting in a children’s playground off Picton Road in Wavertree.
The group had children with them. They played around the men during a meeting that lasted just shy of an hour. That night armed police stormed Bigley’s home, recovering the loaded Beretta from within a bathroom cabinet with his DNA on it. His lawyer later told a court that Bigley had only agreed to mind the gun the previous day and intended to hand it back to the person who gave it to him.
Sentencing Bigley to six years and nine months in prison, Judge Norman Wright said: “Gun crime in this city is extremely serious and it is disquieting to know that this particular firearm had been used on 19 previous occasions. You of course will know that firearms, particularly pistols of this sort, are extremely highly valued in criminal organisations.
James Lunt(Image: liverpool echo)
“They are not something that is just freely passed around. Being so valuable, only extremely trusted people are asked to mind or hold these sorts of weapons. The conclusion I draw in this case is you were someone who was highly trusted by the owners or principal users of this firearm, that is why it was given to you.”
The raid on Bigley’s home brought an end to the Beretta’s campaign of terror. But now the spotlight was firmly on Lunt and his gang. He was not at the shooting of Mr Gaskill, but a prosecutor argued he was both aware of the gangland hit and had control of the Beretta at the time of the attack.
Officers also recovered two other firearms from Lunt’s gang’s arsenal – an Uzi submachine gun and a sawn-off shotgun, found buried in a Wavertree park. There was no evidence he had fired them, but investigators placed him at the top of the network that had access to the cache of weapons.
Operation Blush came to a dramatic climax in May 2018 when Merseyside Police carried out a series of raids across Merseyside and in Wrexham, North Wales. Lunt was eventually jailed for 21 years after trial, with a judge deciding to hand him an extended sentence because of his dangerousness. Fourteen of his allies were also jailed for a combined total of 199 years.