The delayed sentencing of an organised gang arrested in an armed police raid on the Isle of Dogs has been fixed for October 1.
Officers from the National Crime Agency raided 39-year-old Artem Kuts’ terraced house at Claire Place in Millwall, a privately-owned gated residential cul de sac off Tiller Road, in October last year.
They discovered guns with live ammunition in the property. A self-loading pistol with 10 rounds was also recovered from a car driven by one of the men.
Three men were cuffed in the raid, which followed an undercover operation looking into an organised crime syndicate.
Kuts was arrested along with 40-year-old Oliver Mark, from Romford Road in Stratford, and 26-year-old Alexander Georgiev, also known as Ernis Piranej, of no fixed address.
Kuts and Mark were found guilty on May 28 of possessing and supplying guns and ammunition after a seven-day trial at Southwark Crown Court. Georgiev pleaded guilty at a hearing last November.
Surveillance teams from the Crime Agency and Met Police kept watch at Claire Place as Kuts left his home carrying a brown paper bag and got into Mark's black BMW.
Georgiev was seen getting in and out several times carrying the bag, then getting into his blue BMW parked nearby empty-handed.
Armed officers descended on the black car and found the bag contained a Russian Baikal self-loading pistol and eight rounds of Makarov ammunition.
Mark in the driver’s seat and Kuts in the rear passenger seat were both arrested for possessing firearms.
Georgiev was arrested minutes later as he tried to drive off in the blue car and was charged with conspiracy to supply.
Police searched Kuts’ home in the quiet turning and found two more guns and 14 rounds of ammunition, hidden in the garden, packaged and wedged between a wall and a shed.
“These weapons would have been used to kill, threaten and intimidate others had we not intercepted,” the agency's chief investigator Jacque Beer said in a statement to the East London Advertiser.
“Organised criminals like Kuts, Mark and Georgiev perpetuate violent crime and are only motivated by financial gain.”
Kuts, Mark and Georgiev were due to be sentenced on June 17 but the hearing was delayed and is now set for October 1.
A fourth man arrested in Georgiev's car was later released with no further action.
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