909 firearms last year along with 61,867 rounds of ammunition.

When police moved in, they found that Cinga had sold 18 Baikal IZH-79s pistols to the pair. Each came with a silencer and 20 rounds of ammunition. Banking records showed that Smith had transferred around £2,500 to Lithuania before his arrest.

At Blackfriars crown court yesterday, Cinga, 34, was jailed for seven years and Smith, 47, for 10½. The sentencing of Magee, 43, was adjourned.

Officers from Operation Trident, the Scotland Yard unit set up nine years ago to reduce shootings and murders among black men in particular, seized 909 firearms last year along with 61,867 rounds of ammunition. In one raid on a suburban semi opposite a school in Dartford, Kent, they are alleged to have found hundreds of firearms mounted on every available stretch of wall space. Further seizures were made around London by police who are not members of the 300-strong Trident team, as well as by other police forces. Customs officers, meanwhile, intercepted 762 firearms and 7,407 rounds being smuggled into the UK last year. They often discovered the firearms had been parcelled up with consignments of drugs. Police believe that eastern Europe - particularly the Baltic states - are the source of many of the illegal firearms in the UK.