ISLAMABAD: A 40-year-old man who attempted to smuggle 72 firearm parts in a car shipped from Pakistan to the United Kingdom was sentenced to eight years in prison on Friday, the London-based National Crime Agency (NCA) said in a statement.
Yasir Khan pleaded guilty to the crime after an NCA investigation proved he was behind an attempt to smuggle 36 top slides and 36 barrels for 9mm Glock self-loading pistols in a 1976 Datsun Sunny.
The NCA operates across the UK, tackling serious and organized crime, including human trafficking, drug and arms smuggling and financial offenses. It works closely with other government agencies, including Border Force, to combat illicit trade and transnational crime.
The NCA statement said the haul was expertly hidden in the vehicle.
“Working with our law enforcement partners at home and abroad, preventing illegal firearms from reaching the streets of the UK is a key priority for the NCA,” David Phillips, a senior investigating officer with the agency, said while commenting on the development.
“The NCA and Border Force have prevented this huge array of component parts from entering the criminal marketplace and being used to produce lethal firearms for organized crime groups.”
The illegal firearm parts were concealed beneath the windscreen, behind the engine block and inside the fuel tank. They were discovered by Border Force officers during a search at London Gateway Port on July 7, 2024.
NCA officers launched an investigation, and Khan, who claimed to be a car dealer, was arrested by the agency’s Armed Operations Unit on July 12 in Birmingham’s Jewlery Quarter.
Khan appeared in Birmingham Crown Court on Friday and was sentenced after pleading guilty to smuggling firearms.
The NCA statement said investigating officers discovered voice notes on his phone, providing evidence of his contact with a supplier in Pakistan who had access to manufacturing firearm components.
The supplier had invited Khan to visit “the factory” in summer 2023.
Khan is suspected of a similar importation in November 2023. Mobile phone voice notes and videos showed him struggling with ammunition jamming in firearms after they were constructed and test-fired.
Evidence also revealed that during 2023, Khan purchased several deactivated firearms, which he is believed to have converted back into fully functional lethal weapons.

ISLAMABAD: The United States Department of State issued a travel advisory to Pakistan on Friday, urging its citizens to reconsider travel to the South Asian country “due to terrorism and the potential for armed conflict.”
The advisory comes days after President Donald Trump told the US Congress Pakistan had apprehended an Daesh militant involved in the 2021 Kabul airport suicide bombing, which killed 13 US service members and nearly 170 Afghans. 
Pakistan has also been ranked as the world’s second-most affected country by “terrorism” in a global index published by the Australian-based Institute for Economics and Peace, which surveyed 163 countries covering 99.7 percent of the world’s population.
Pakistan has experienced a significant surge in militant violence, particularly in its western provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, where groups like the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) have targeted civilians and security forces.
The Level 3 travel advisory urges American nationals to reconsider travel to Pakistan while designating a Level 4 threat for the two volatile provinces and areas near the de facto border separating the Pakistani and Indian sides of Kashmir.
“Violent extremist groups continue to plot attacks in Pakistan,” the advisory noted.
“Do not travel to Balochistan Province and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Province, which include the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), due to terrorism,” it continued, also advising against travel to “the immediate vicinity of the India-Pakistan border and the Line of Control due to terrorism and the potential for armed conflict.”
The advisory noted that militant groups may attack with little or no warning, targeting transportation hubs, markets, shopping malls, military installations, airports, universities, tourist attractions, schools, hospitals, places of worship and government facilities.
It also highlighted that proscribed armed groups have targeted US diplomats and diplomatic facilities in the past.
“Pakistan’s security environment remains fluid, sometimes changing with little or no notice,” the advisory said. “There are greater security resources and infrastructure in the major cities, particularly Islamabad, and security forces in these areas may be more readily able to respond to an emergency compared to other areas of the country.”
It warned the US government has limited ability to provide services to US citizens in KP, Balochistan, Azad Kashmir and most areas outside the major cities.
“Due to the risks, US government personnel working in Pakistan must obtain special authorization to travel to most areas outside of Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi,” it added.