Moment armed police arrest man, 64, who made 'assassination kits' for gangsters from his back garden as he burns 'treasure trove' of evidence

Daily Mail​

10-06-2025

This is the moment a 64-year-old weapons collector, who made 'assassination kits' for gangsters in his garden, began burning a 'treasure trove' of evidence as armed police descended on his property.
Ronald Knowles curated 80 'assassination kits' in his home in Alfreton, Derbyshire, which included at least 33 firearms, converted from replica pistols, bullets, as well as silencers and latex gloves.
He made the killing kits in a makeshift workshop, before handing them off to notorious 'drugs general' Gary Hardy, 61, who sold them from his Ravenshead home in Nottinghamshire.
Now CCTV reveals the dramatic moment armed police swooped on his home as they caught him setting alight to a hoard of evidence as plumes of smoke billowed into the sky.
Drone footage shows Knowles step out of the outbuilding, holding his hands into the air as armed officers made their way into his home, before they took him into custody and marched him away.
The gun factory, producing the 'lethal' self loading pistols, was discovered as part of an investigation into Hardy by Nottinghamshire Police and the East Midlands Special Operations Unit (EMSOU).
During the raid, police found lathes and a drill used by the weapons collector to make the silencers and convert the pistols and ammunition, as well as throwing stars, machetes, crossbows and air weapons, and around 1,000 bullets.
Knowles and Hardy were convicted of serious firearms offences at Nottingham Crown Court and are due to be sentenced at a later date.
Police began to make arrests after stopping a van in Measham, Leicesteshire, in August 2023, where they seized a box containing four 'lethal' self-loading pistols.
Each weapon had been individually packaged with a silencer, blue nitrile gloves and ten rounds of live ammunition.
Detective Chief Inspector Mark Adas said: 'The bullets had been converted from blank firing to live.
'If discharged they would effectively expand on impact. These were lethal assassination kits.
'I call them that because they were individually packaged. The firearms were designed to kill. It is highly concerning.
'With the amount of ammunition that we found, that was in our belief destined for conversion, another 80 assassination kits could have been converted.
'It was a significant find for us. This is the largest firearms manufacturing operation that I have ever seen, and to my knowledge one of the biggest we've seen in the East Midlands, if not wider'.
Police launched a probe into Hardy following his release from a 20-year prison sentence, which eventually unearthed that an operation he led had been supplying lethal weapons to organised crime groups in the West Midlands and Essex.
Police say the assassination kits were also passed to career criminal Stephen Houston, 64, who sold them to underworld gangs.
Police say one of the weapons was used by drug dealer Jason Hill, 23, to murder rival Owen Fairclough in June 2023.
When police searched Hill's home they found a safe buried in the garden containing two guns with silencers and two dozen 9mm bullets.
A court heard police believe Houston supplied him with the weapons which had been converted by Knowles.
'We will never know the true scale of how many lives have been saved as a result of us dismantling this operation, but it is significant'.
In September 2008, Hardy gained notoriety when he was jailed for 20 years following in a major drugs trial that was guarded by armed police.
That jury heard Hardy was one of three 'drugs generals' supplying heroin and amphetamines to dealers in Nottinghamshire.
He had a fleet of luxury cars and owned more than 40 properties as part of a string of businesses. The court heard Hardy smuggled heroin into the UK in lorry tyres.
The lucrative profits from selling the drugs were then split with John Dawes, and his brother and international drug trafficker Robert.
Knowles, Hardy, Houston and Hill were convicted of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.
Knowles, Hardy and Houston will also be sentenced for conspiracy to convert a blank firing gun into a firearm, and conspiracy to sell or transfer a firearm.