10/14/2021 0 Comments Baikal Firearms Russia
He had been buying so-called "alarm pistols" - low-powered weapons permitted by Lithuanian law - from the Russian manufacturer, Baikal, for as little as the equivalent of £10 each. Improbably enough, the man at the heart of the trade was a local vet.When police raided Andrius Rauba's house and workshop last August they discovered 106 firearms which had been converted, or were about to be converted, into deadly weapons. Some products include: Baikal MP-133 Baikal MP-153 ZK rifle Baikal MP-155 Baikal IZh-79 Baikal IZh-18 Baikal IZh-81 MP-443 Grach MP-448 SkyphViking Baikal MP-446 Made in Russia Baikal 9mm Price DecreasViking Baikal9mm BaikalRussian 9mmRussian BaikalRussian MP446MP46 9mmViking Baikal MP 446Rus.Over the past two years, however, Kedainiai has been producing another, more lucrative, and far more deadly commodity, one which is having an impact on the lives of youths 1,100 miles away in Peckham, Moss Side and a dozen other British neighbourhoods - the British teenage gang members' weapon of choice.Hundreds of relatively low-powered gas pistols are known to have been converted to discharge live ammunition in a workshop in the town before being smuggled into the UK. Products Various products have been made by IZHMEKH under the Baikal name, including various shotguns and rifles. For some reason, local people are particularly proud of their cucumbers: it is, they like to say, the cucumber capital of the country.Baikal products are also said to be sold by Remington under the name of Ranger.
Baikal Firearms Russia Trial Alongside 12Officials from Lithuania's Office of Organised Crime and Corruption say the weapons came from Rauba.In Manchester, detectives suspect they see Rauba's handiwork in 30 converted weapons found in August 2005 in a secret compartment beneath a seat of a Volvo. Andrius Gurskas, 26, Orestas Bublilauskas, 34, and Darius Stankunas, 34, had hidden Baikal handguns along with hundreds of bullets in the modified fuel tank of a Vauxhall Astra. The criminal, Gerry Smith, 47, was jailed for 10 years at Blackfriars crown court last week while his Lithuanian contact, Evaldas Cinga, 34, received a seven-year term.A month earlier, three Lithuanian men were jailed for a total of 32 years at Southwark crown court in London after smuggling what the judge called an "assassin's armoury" of weapons into Britain. His house boasts a home cinema, a new kitchen and a caravan in the driveway, which his wife suspects was bought with the proceeds of crime.Rauba has admitted converting the weapons - although he denies having anything to do with the smuggling operation - and is behind bars, awaiting trial alongside 12 other men.One day last May, Scotland Yard detectives keeping a London criminal under surveillance, watched him negotiate the purchase of 18 of Rauba's weapons from a Lithuanian arms dealer at Cafe Rouge in St John's Wood, north London. He dealt in second-hand cars and rubbed shoulders with cigarette smugglers and vodka bootleggers before turning to the conversion of weapons. By the time they reached the UK, British police believe they were retailing for around £1,500 a time.Rauba, 37, who has two children, eight and four, is thought to have tried his hand at a number of enterprises because his vet's salary was so meagre.At first, criminals produced crude conversions of British Brocock air pistols, then moved on to German or Russian starter pistols or flare guns.Then police began recovering an increasing number of converted gas pistols which had been smuggled into the country. Five have been seized in Manchester in the last two weeks alone.In the week when policymakers, senior police officers and community leaders were called to a Downing Street summit to consider the causes of teenage gun crime, and John Reid, the home secretary, announced a review of the legislation on guns and gangs, many detectives were simply trying to reduce the supply of firearms on Britain's streets.Criminals in the UK have increasingly resorted to converted air pistols, gas pistols and starter guns since private ownership of handguns was outlawed in 1997. They know that there are many other converted Baikals out there.Britain, he said, was the destination of choice due to the high demand for the guns and the high prices. They even had new barrels which had been painstakingly rifled to maintain the velocity and accuracy of each round.Scotland Yard detectives are convinced that the eastward expansion of the EU in May 2004 has made it easier to smuggle weapons from eastern Europe to the UK, a view echoed by Jurijus Milevskis, the deputy head of the Lithuanian Criminal Police Bureau in Vilnius. Each weapon was usually sold with a silencer and live ammunition. He had been converting Baikal IZH pistols, which are similar to the 9mm Makarov, the standard police gun in the Baltics. Rauba's conversions are among the most accomplished British police have seen.![]() I don't let my imagination go that far. I don't like to think about the impact he was having on London. I don't know what went through his mind. "I had really had no idea.
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