Arms dealer who turned blanks into live weapons arrested at gun point as police storm his home

• Police storm the flat of an arms dealer who converted blank firing pistols into firearms

An arms dealer who ran a workshop building lethal weapons has been jailed for five years.

Alireza Nowbakht, 50, from Smethwick converted blank firing pistols into live guns.

He bought seven of the weapons online from a legitimate supplier and had them delivered to a nearby address. He was under surveillance as he picked them up and took them back home.

He was arrested when officers from the National Crime Agency’s Armed Operations Unit raided his property in Mallin Street, Smethwick, on 22 December last year.

Police body camera footage shows Nowbakht opening the door as officers scream at him,

"Keep your hands visible when you open the door!

"Armed police!

"Open the door, hands above your head. Show me your hands!

"Walk towards me! Stop! Stand still!

"Turn around slowly, don't do anything that I don't ask you to do. Do you understand?"

Police found machining tools used to convert the guns, a weapon, live rounds of ammunition and ammunition casings.

Nowbakht had a VW Tiguan parked outside which been taken 12 days earlier from Wednesbury and had been disguised with cloned number plates.

Nowbakht was charged with possessing a firearm, possessing ammunition and theft of a motor car.

Nowbakht admitted the charges and following a Newton Hearing at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Monday July 10 he was sentenced to five years in prison.