Police swoop as Russian guns are traded at busy Wednesbury retail park

He is now paying the price for his involvement in handling the guns – which a court heard were 'highly valued' by criminals for their ability to 'kill, murder, terrorise and intimidate' – with an 11-year jail sentence.

Three Tordev 7.62mm semi automatic pistols and a similar number of the eight bullet magazines they fire were transferred between two vehicles on Gallagher Retail Park in Wednesbury, near Ikea and junction 9 of the M6.

Valnuchinas carried the arsenal of weapons in a Netto shopping bag from his Ford Focus outside the Curry's Superstore at the site in Axeltree Way, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.

The 37-year-old family man went straight to a Mercedes that had arrived in the car park shortly after him and put the bag in the boot when it was electronically opened by the driver, revealed Mrs Sati Ruck, prosecuting.

Valnuchinas then climbed in to the passenger seat of the car and had a conversation with the driver, the court heard. Four minutes later he drove away, moments after the Mercedes.

The swap on May 24, 2012, was secretly watched by investigators who were keeping the other man under surveillance. He was stopped and detained in nearby Wolverhampton Street by officers who found the self-loading handguns and three magazines of live ammunition in a bin liner in the Netto shopping bag which had the fingerprints of Valnuchinas on it.

He was not arrested until almost six months later, said Mr Sunit Sandhu, defending, who added: "He clearly carried the guns from one place to the other but there is no evidence he was the gun merchant who had packed these items. One has to be realistic. They were to be used for criminality but one cannot say what sort."

Nobody has explained where the guns came from or what type of crime was likely to be committed with them, the court was told. But scenes of crime officer Nicholas Dempsey said they were highly valued by the underworld because they were authentic semi automatic weapons rather than converted firearms.

Valnuchinas, from Lillian Grove, Bilston, admitted three offences of transferring firearms and the illegal possession of ammunition and was jailed by Judge Martin Walsh who said: "The gravity of guns cannot be over estimated. They kill, murder, terrorise and intimidate."

Amarjit Singh, aged 43, from Chiltern Drive, Portobello, who has admitted possession of the guns, is due to be sentenced next month.