yeah right.... ====================== http://www.guardian.co.uk/gun/Story/0,2763,533776,00.html Factory 'making weapons from fake guns' Special report: gun violence in Britain Matt Keating Wednesday August 8, 2001 The Guardian A man was arrested yesterday in a raid on a south London factory believed to be converting imitation firearms into weapons. Twelve imitation handguns, a real handgun, two silencers, and a quantity of blank ammunition were recovered by police from premises in Bermondsey - two caravans and a workshop advertised as being a car repair business. They were found along with machine tools believed to be for converting imitation guns into weapons that would fire bullets, said Detective Inspector Clive Stevens of the Metropolitan police's serious crime squad. This is a major find. It is highly probable these items, once converted, would have ended up in the hands of violent Southwark and Lambeth-_base_d criminals, he added. Last night a Scotland Yard spokesman said that the recipients would not have been Yardie gangs in south London, where recently there have been a number of shootings. This raid was not part of Operation Trident [against Yardies]. Intelligence gathering during the investigation has led detectives to believe that the weapons were not destined for Yardie gangs. The imitation guns resembled semi-automatic 8mm weapons, while the blank ammunition appeared to have been altered so it could be fired, said Mr Stevens. Seven kilograms of what police believe to be cannabis was also recovered. A man, 42, from Bermondsey was arrested at the scene, and last night was released on bail. Turning imitation weapons into ones that fire adds to the dilemma police face over knowing if a weapon is real or fake; it is believed imitations that cannot fire are used in four out of five armed robberies. Last month Derek Bennett, 28, died after being shot at six times by police in Lambeth while carrying a cigarette lighter that looked like a pistol.