Quinton drug dealers who had guns and cocaine busted by armed police and put behind bars

Wesley Carter, of Barn Piece in Quinton, was jailed for nine years and six months after admitting possession of illegal guns and ammunition, Class A drugs and cannabis cultivation at Birmingham Crown Court yesterday (Monday February 22).

Keelan Simpson, of Stonehouse Lane, admitted firearms offences and cannabis cultivation and was jailed for seven years and six months.

The pair were found by police at a flat in Monmouth Road, Bartley Green, where officers discovered four guns, around half a kilo of cocaine worth £19k and a 50-plant cannabis farm.

Pic above: One of the guns found in the investigation

West Midlands Police have revealed video footage of the moment the pair opened the door to armed officers, which can be seen here.

They had received intelligence that Carter, aged 39 and Simpson, aged 24 had access to firearms.

The officers made their way up the maisonette block and were prepared to force entry when, by chance, the pair opened the door to head outside.

Three revolvers and a black handgun were found hidden in a rucksack alongside nearly 80 rounds of ammunition.

Lead shot, casings, ammunition making equipment and an instruction leaflet on how to make your own bullets were also recovered. However, there was no evidence the pair had actually manufactured their own rounds.

The cocaine − valued at around £19,000 − was found in a black leather bag and a branded red carrier bag.

Detectives trawled CCTV in the area and found footage showing Carter, from Barn Piece in Quinton, carrying the bags in public.

Keelan Simpson

Detective Sergeant Dan Tang from the West Midlands Regional Organised Crime Unit said: “They certainly got a shock when they opened the flat door.

"Maybe they’d heard footsteps and had expected to find a customer…they couldn’t have been more wrong.

“The revolvers were examined by ballistics experts and identified as being manufactured in the late 1800s. However, they were all fully functioning, lethal weapons.

“The 9mm handgun was capable of firing in both semi-automatic and fully automatic modes and had three unfired bulleted cartridges in the magazine.

“Some deadly weapons and we’ve potentially saved lives by taking them off the streets."

All of the guns were test-fired by ballistics experts and the examined; none of them were linked to any recorded shootings in the West Midlands.