Lorry driver ran gun converting workshop from caravan and planned for ‘race war’
A far-right lorry driver converted blank-firing guns into deadly pistols to sell to gangsters while also stockpiling weapons for a ‘race war’ a court heard.
Thomas McKenna, 60, sent messages telling friends and online associates to ‘get yourself ready’ and ‘the time for protesting is over’ as he prepared to wage war on Muslims.
Meanwhile he was distributing weapons to a criminal network including Faisal Razzaq, the getaway driver in the fatal shooting of Pc Sharon Beshenivsky.
Prosecutor Emily Dummett told Kingston Crown Court McKenna wrote messages about plans to ‘kill’ ‘shoot’ ‘unalive’ or ‘neutralise’ Muslims and immigrants ‘before they are too many’.
‘Bro, that’s why I believe our only course for survival freedom is strike now while we have the numbers and hard unalive the f****** lot of them,’ McKenna said in one message, the court heard on Thursday.
McKenna ran his gun conversion business with a lathe and a drill, from one of three caravans he had at a large traveller site in Buckles Lane, South Ockendon, Essex. He sold on the guns for profit to organised crime groups.
He sent his partner, Tina Smith, 55, links to videos which showed how to make explosives.
The couple and eight others have been convicted for their involvement in a firearms conspiracy, with linked guns found across London and the South East.
Dramatic police footage shows the moment McKenna’s caravan was raided by armed police who found weapons and explosives, inside. He was frogmarched outside and searched after the caravan was surrounded.
Alongside the weapons were manuals on bomb making and guns. It is understood the stash was part of his preparation for what he termed a ‘race war.’
The court heard in one message McKenna wrote: ‘I agree they (Muslims) have flooded our lands. It’s a hostile takeover, keep yourself safe.’
‘It’s time to start slotting these monsters,’ he wrote in another.
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McKenna also made improvised explosives containing black powder and shrapnel.
He and his partner, a bus driver, are thought to have lived and slept in the caravan where the weapons were stashed.
Officers raided the three caravans in November 2024 and found two loaded guns and two improvised explosive devices.
Other weapons recovered from the caravans include a non-firing replica AK47, ammunition, crossbows, hunting knives and knuckle dusters.
Six reactivated blank-firing guns linked to McKenna have been recovered, but prosecutors believe he created more.
One of the converted pistols and ammunition was found at Razzaq’s home in Edgware, north London, the court heard.
‘Converted top-venting blank firing pistols are a popular choice for criminals,” Ms Dummett said.
‘They are easier to get hold of than original lethal purpose firearms, but can be used, in just the same way, to threaten, to seriously injure and to kill.’
McKenna previously admitted 11 counts including converting blank firing guns and making explosives.
Prosecutors said Razzaq, 44, who was convicted of manslaughter for his role in the fatal raid at family-run Universal Express travel agents in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in November 2005, received firearms for onward sale to criminal customers.
Other customers of McKenna’s converted guns include Allan Crosby, 44, of, Sidcup, and Ryan Smith, 44, of Dunton Green, Kent, who were convicted of possession of firearms and modified ammunitions.
They are being sentenced alongside Tina Smith who admitted four counts, and McKenna, who has pleaded guilty to 14 counts, including charges of collecting terrorist information.
McKenna’s friend Ricky Dorey, 43, who lived on the same static caravan site, helped him find customers to buy the guns.
He and his brother Robert Dorey, 44, of Tilbury, Essex, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to sell or transfer prohibited firearms.
Abdul Saleh, 32, of Edgware, the Dorey brothers and Loughnane, of Hayes, west London, each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to sell prohibited firearms.
Razzaq admitted the same charge, and five other counts.
Loughnane’s partner Tammy Rigg pleaded guilty to possession of a prohibited firearm and possession of ammunition without a certificate.
The sentencing hearing for McKenna, Tina Smith, Crosby and Ryan Smith is set to conclude on February 6.
Razzaq, Saleh, the Dorey brothers, Loughnane and Rigg will be sentenced later next month.
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