Gun fashioned from a walking stick and linked to an unsolved murder is found in the back of a TAXI by police probing ‘spider’s web of firearms crime’ in London
- Victorian cane found in a taxi held a single-barrelled .410-calibre cane gun
- The discovery helped unlock a ‘spider’s web of gun crime’ in London
- Gun broker who supplied weapon to drug gangs is linked to unsolved murder
To the untrained eye, it looks like an ordinary walking stick.
But when detectives found this Victorian cane in the back of a taxi, they discovered what may be the key to solving a notorious murder.
For hidden inside the walking stick was a single-barrelled .410-calibre cane gun, capable of killing someone with a single click.
The discovery helped unlock what detectives described as a ‘spider’s web of gun crime’ in London.
Now it can be revealed that the gun broker who supplied this extraordinary weapon to warring drug gangs in the capital also sold a shotgun used in an unsolved murder and multiple shootings.
Police were mounting a suveillance operation when arms dealer Cristobal Ngomo traded the cane gun to Sonny Rai in February 2019 in Kings Langley, Hertfordshire.
When detectives found this Victorian cane in the back of a taxi, they discovered what may be the key to solving a notorious murder
As Rai returned home in a taxi, it was stopped by officers, who were amazed to discover a genuine Victorian cane gun. Such weapons are a rarity and can fetch around £1,000 if sold as antiques.
Cristobel Ngomo was caught selling a ‘Terminator-type’ shotgun
Weeks later Ngomo was caught selling a ‘Terminator-type’ shotgun rarely seen in the UK, which had been used to kill an innocent man days earlier.
Edward Simpson, 25, was in a children’s park when he was hit by a stray bullet, the unintended victim of a feud between rival gangsters.
No one has ever been brought to justice for the fatal shooting in Feltham, west London, in June 2019. Four days after the killing, a gang was seen going into bushes in a park in nearby Hillingdon. Police, who had the men under surveillance, found a 12-bore pump action shotgun loaded with four cartridges in the undergrowth.
The gun, which was used to kill Mr Simpson, was later found to have DNA linked to Ngomo on it. Police discovered that Ngomo had been hiding the murder weapon with the intention of selling it for up to £5,000 to be used in further bloodshed.
Last week the 30-year-old gun merchant from Hayes, west London, was jailed for 16 years at Isleworth Crown Court after being convicted of conspiracy to transfer a prohibited weapon and the sale or transfer of a prohibited weapon.
In May 2019, Rai, now 20, from Whitton, west London, was sentenced to two years in a young offenders’ institution for possession of a firearm.
Now police are appealing for help in solving the murder of Mr Simpson in the hope that the link to the arms trade could solve the case.
The shotgun has also been linked to two other shootings in east London in July and October 2018.
Detective Chief Inspector Driss Hayoukane, from the Metropolitan Police’s Specialist Crime Command, said Ngomo was the key to unlocking a ‘spider’s web of gun crime’.
As Rai returned home in a taxi, it was stopped by officers, who were amazed to discover a genuine Victorian cane gun. Such weapons are a rarity and can fetch around £1,000
The shotgun has been linked to two other shootings in east London in July and October 2018
Last week the 30-year-old gun merchant from Hayes, west London, was jailed for 16 years
He said: ‘Ngomo was the link to these two separate investigations and was the key to unlocking this network of criminals who were involved in the supply and passing of weapons that have been used in a homicide.
‘The weapons are very unusual. The shotgun murder weapon was like something you see Arnie using in the Terminator. The other looked like a walking stick a highwayman might use. We had never seen anything like it before.’
Detective Chief Inspector Katherine Goodwin, who is leading the investigation into Mr Simpson’s death, said: ‘Since 2019, Edward’s family have not had justice for his death and although we have recovered the weapon that fatally killed him, we still need more evidence to bring his killers to justice.’
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