Gang jailed for improvised 'slamfire' gun found in car in Coventry

Five men have been jailed after being caught with a homemade gun in a car in Coventry



Armed police stopped the vehicle in Caredoc Road in May last year and recovered an improvised firearm, known as a slamfire gun.

Shotgun ammunition and cartridges were also found in the car, West Midlands Police said.

Det Ch Insp Leanne Lowe said she was pleased the "potentially lethal weapon" had been taken off the streets.

"A slamfire gun may look different to your typical gun, but it can be just as destructive and harmful in the wrong hands," she added.

Jiguaerl Botamba, Jamal Knole, Andrew Clay, Paul Gordon and Kameil Campbell were arrested after the firearm was discovered on 8 May 2020.



The men were sentenced at Warwick Crown Court.

• Kameil Campbell, 19, of Guild Road, Coventry, was sentenced on 10 December to three years in prison after pleading guilty to possessing a firearm and possessing a firearm with intent to cause violence
  
• Jiguaerl Botamba, 22, of no fixed address, was sentenced on 10 December to five years and four months after pleading guilty to possessing a firearm and possessing a firearm with intent to cause violence. He was also given an additional, consecutive 10-year sentence for separate offences of kidnap, causing grievous bodily harm with intent and possessing an offensive weapon
  
• Paul Gordon, 28, of Whiteness Grove, Coventry, was sentenced on 10 November to eight years after being convicted in April of possessing a firearm and possessing a firearm with intent to cause violence
  
• Jamal Knole, 32, of Rosewood Avenue, Coventry, was sentenced on 10 December to eight years after being convicted in April of possessing a firearm and possessing a firearm with intent to cause violence
  
• Andrew Clay, 47, of Black Prince Avenue, Coventry, was sentenced on 9 November to six years after being convicted in April of possessing a firearm and possessing a firearm with intent to cause violence

For the uninitiated a 'slamfire' weapon is a pair of concentric steel tubes with a nail at one end used to ignite a shotgun cartridge. The weapon is fired by sliding one tube very forcibly inside the other although the result can be unpredictable. They were used by resistance fighters in the Philipines against the Japanese invaders and were even produced commercially in the USA for a short time after that.