A ROWLEY Regis man is one of three gang members jailed after they were caught with a loaded handgun during a police sting.  

Plain clothes officers witnessed Shayne Campbell pass the revolver − with four bullets in its chamber − to Lisimba Frederick and Dwayne O’Connor in Church Green, Handsworth, during an operation on 1 August last year.

Armed cops stopped an Audi driven by 35-year-old Frederick in Rabone Lane, Smethwick, shortly after he accepted the deadly delivery and recovered the firearm concealed in a ‘Jelly Bean’ design iPad case from the car’s foot-well.

Dudley News:

Forensics experts found fingerprints and DNA belonging to O’Connor − a passenger in the Audi − on the gun and the 34-year-old was arrested during a dawn raid at his home in Rushy Piece, Woodgate Valley, on 6 September.

Campbell, from All Saints Road, Hockley, was arrested on August 8 near his home address.

He initially denied transferring a firearm but entered a guilty plea on day one of his trial, while Frederick and O’Connor both admitted possessing a firearm.

And at Birmingham Crown Court on Thursday, February 15, Frederick, from Farm Road, Rowley Regis, O’Connor and 22-year-old Campbell were each sentenced to five years in prison.

O’Connor also admitted possessing drugs with intent to supply after a Vauxhall Corsa he was seen driving on July 31 was seized and found to contain £9,000 in cash plus crack cocaine, heroin, weighing scales and dealer bags. He received a further four years to run consecutively making nine years in total. 

Investigating officer Phil Caldwell, said: “These men exchanged a loaded handgun in a residential street in the early evening; it’s totally unacceptable. 

“Campbell acted as a minder for the gun and it was his job to hand it back to O’Connor. There’s no suggestion he used it but anyone who comes into contact with illegal firearms, even if they are holding it for someone else, must be prepared to spend a long time locked away from society.

“This is the latest success in our efforts to combat organised crime in the West Midlands and to take deadly weapons off the region’s streets. The gun contained four live rounds; that’s four lives, maybe more, that this police operation has potentially saved." 

The convictions followed an investigation by officers in the West Midlands Regional Organised Crime Unit (WMROCU).