GUN crime shattered the peace of a residential street after two drug dealers went to war – with one of them blasting the windows of the other man’s home with a sawn-off shotgun.
A month later gunman Genghis Khan returned and fired two more shots into a car parked outside the house, Warwick Crown Court heard.
And when the police raided his girlfriend’s home, they found the loaded weapon, 36 shotgun cartridges and more than £8,000 worth of cocaine.
Khan (26) of Achal Close, Coventry, pleaded guilty to two charges of having a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, possessing a prohibited weapon, possessing ammunition without a firearms certificate and possessing cocaine with intent to supply.
He denied a more serious allegation of possessing the sawn-off shotgun with intent to endanger life, which prosecutor Justin Jarmola said was accepted, because he said he had ensured no-one was at home before firing the shots.
Mr Jarmola said that at 2.30am on May 10 last year a shotgun was fired through the sitting room window and front door window of a house in Lauderdale Avenue, Rowley’s Green, Coventry.
The couple who lived there were away overnight with their two children, and discovered the damage when they got home the next day and called the police.
As the police investigation into the incident continued, the second incident took place at 1.30am on June 8.
“The occupants of the same address are present. They hear shouts outside, and a shotgun is discharged twice, causing damage to the car parked in the street outside the property.
“There was no-one in the car, which was parked in a residential street. They call the police.
“What became clear is that Khan’s family, he and his brother and a cousin, were in dispute with members of [the man’s] family. Independent intelligence led the police to believe the two incidents were linked to drug supply.”
Another search took place in Achal Close where the police found false number plates which matched those on a stolen Citroen which had been captured by a CCTV camera in Lauderdale Avenue.
The car itself, which Khan admitted handling, was found near his girlfriend’s home.
On his phone, which the police seized, were photos of him brandishing the sawn-off shotgun and texts relating to the two incidents, including one he sent telling a friend to ‘check out’ a newspaper report.
Judge Sylvia de Bertodano remarked: “This is firearms linked to serious crime. It is linked to his drug-dealing activities. This is a man who has large quantities of cocaine, some of it packaged for street dealing, and he has firearms.”
Mr Jarmola said that when he was questioned, Khan said he was acting as a ‘custodian’ for the drugs, although that was not accepted by the prosecution.
David Murray, defending, pointed out that Khan, who had no previous convictions, says the other man had put pressure on him to hold the drugs and shotgun.
“He fired the shotgun because of an increasing pressure and threats to his family. It was literally a warning shot. He wanted [the other man] and his family to leave him alone.”
Mr Jarmola said that was not accepted by the prosecution, pointing out that Khan had lied in his interview, claiming to have been given the weapons to store as well as the cocaine.
The judge adjourned the case for Khan to be sentenced at a later hearing, and remanded him in custody.
