‘We want to start out killing them bro, and now’: Chilling messages from underworld armourer who needed ‘race struggle’ as he ran gun manufacturing unit from his caravan on UK’s largest traveller web site
An underworld weapons manufacturer who was jailed for supplying criminal gangs with homemade firearms and explosives had been planning to launch a series of violent attacks on Muslim immigrants.
Thomas McKenna was sentenced to 16 years at Kingston Crown Court on Thursday after a huge police raid uncovered he was operating an illegal weapons workshop at Britain’s largest traveller camp.
The 60-year-old had been converting blank-firing pistols and selling them to criminal associates with his partner, Tina Smith, 55, in their caravan on the site in Essex.
McKenna’s enterprise was so prolific that since his arrest there has been a huge drop in the number of converted firearms involved in shootings in London, according to the Metropolitan Police.
But, in addition to fuelling the capital’s prolific gang war, the lorry driver had been plotting his own violent crusade against ‘Muslims, the immigrants and so on’.
Chilling text messages to criminal associates revealed McKenna wanted to ‘go to war’ and had been stockpiling weapons for months, fearing he needed to act ‘before there are too many.’
Checks on electronic devices revealed the vile messages to associates via TikTok, Facebook and Signal in which McKenna exhorted them to arm themselves for the race war and spoke of ‘kicking it off myself’.
In one message on October 23, 2023, he wrote: ‘Bro we have to fight them now, before they are too many.’
A glum-looking Thomas McKenna, 60, after police raided his weapons and explosives factory at a sprawling traveller camp in South Ockendon, Essex
A surveillance photo issued by Counter Terrorism Police showing Thomas McKenna buying a machine gun
Four days later, he added: ‘I got no one here to cover what needs doing, vehicles, trucks, logistics, weapons, ammo supplies, coms, radio’s [sic], supplies, food, warm clothing, military equipment, the list is never ending.’
On November 1, he wrote: ‘They want to kill everyone not Muslim, that will never change. Their [sic] barbaric monsters. If they get the upper hand here thats what is in store for our people, so we fight them.’
By January 12 2024, he was writing: ‘We must go [to] war and win, brother. I understand war is all we have now. Protesting and all the other s*** is gone, only killing is left.’
Less than two weeks later, on January 26, he added: ‘We need to start killing them bro and now’ and on February 6 he wrote: ‘Gonna do a bunch of killin bro.’
Two days later, he added: ‘I don’t understand why we’re not slotting them. I think it will happen this year, very tense here now. I’m thinking about kicking it off myself bro.’
He made the point again in February 20, writing: ‘The time for protesting is over, we have to fight now. There’s only one option mate, and that’s to go on them – war.’
On March 6, McKenna wrote: ‘You know nothing’s going to change unless we get our hands dirty bro’ and on March 19: ‘I think we’ll be blowing s*** up soon enough bro. We got a fight coming mate, right now we’re losing, we got to turn that around.’
On April 3, McKenna added: ‘We just kill them all. Easier now than later,’ and on April 24 and 26: ‘We need to kill these f***ers bro. We hit them first.’
Tina Smith, 55, admitted making explosives and possessing documents and videos relating to making explosives likely to be useful for terrorism
!['Top level [weapons] supplier¿ Faisal Razzaq, 44, had been jailed for life with a minimum term of 11 years for his part in the 2005 armed robbery at a Bradford travel agents in which PC Sharon Beshenivsky was shot dead](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2026/02/13/13/105900903-15557159-_Top_level_weapons_supplier_Faisal_Razzaq_44_had_been_jailed_for-a-11_1770988178722.jpg)
‘Top level [weapons] supplier’ Faisal Razzaq, 44, had been jailed for life with a minimum term of 11 years for his part in the 2005 armed robbery at a Bradford travel agents in which PC Sharon Beshenivsky was shot dead
Buckles Lane in South Ockendon, Essex, has around 1,000 occupants – although a council report says 76 per cent of the occupants have no right to be there
Insiders claim criminals are taking advantage of the chaos by living at the camp (pictured)
Smith also became involved in the messages, writing on July 17: ‘They all wrong ons they all need hanging.’
On August 5, McKenna told another user they could ‘help me neutralising the muzzies’ – a reference to Muslims.
Two weeks later, on August 19, he added: ‘I believe our only course for survival freedom is strike now while we have the numbers and hard unalive the f***ing lot of them.’
Other messages revealed that McKenna had been stockpiling weapons over the course of 18 months and was also advising his friends and associates to buy crossbows to prepare for this ‘war’.
When police raided the site in South Ockendon, on November 8, 2024, they discovered a jug by the dining room table in the main caravan with two homemade bombs and another 34 fish baiters ready to be loaded with explosives.
There was also more than 2kg of precursor chemicals and a second caravan equipped with a lathe, two pillar drills, a hand drill, clamps, welding equipment and spray paint cans.
Officers also seized a replica AK-47 assault rifle and a replica Sten sub-machine gun, along with a guidebook on how to build a working Sten gun from scratch.
McKenna told police the weapons were ready to defend himself against a possible ISIS attack as retribution for going to Iraq in 2016 to fight against the terrorist group.
Detectives found that he had been arrested on his return but was not charged.
Evil McKenna converted blank-firing starter pistols into working weapons – and painted them black to make sure they looked like the real thing
A replica AK47 assault rifle was found in his premises – although detectives believe McKenna was looking into how to turn it into a viable weapon
One of the improvised explosive devices that McKenna and his girlfriend, Tina Smith, 54, had been working on
A clip holding hollowed out dum dum bullets, that can cause catastrophic injuries as they are designed to expand on impact with their target
The investigation into McKenna had begun six months earlier when officers from Scotland Yard’s Specialist Crime Command identified Faisal Razzaq, 44, one of two getaway drivers in the killing of PC Beshenivsky, as a key link in the supply of reactivated blank firing handguns.
The notorious killing of the unarmed police officer, on her youngest daughter’s fourth birthday, came as she answered a call to an alarm that had sounded at the Universal Express travel agents in Bradford on November 18, 2005, while an armed robbery was underway.
Following his arrest, Razzaq was sentenced to life with a minimum of 11 years for manslaughter but then released in 2017, and re-established himself in the arms supply business, using the cover of a luxury car hire company called Flexible Hire Contracts in Bushey, Hertfordshire.
Police launched Operation Eatchief in May 2024 to identify the rest of his new network. The team began by making an armed stop on a silver Audi heading to the Notting Hill Carnival on August 26.
The passenger was Pride Tuhwe, 26, an associate of Razzaq, and inside was a man bag containing thousands of pounds in cash, a Turkish Ceonic P320 pistol that had been converted into a viable weapon and eight hollow point ‘dum dum’ bullets designed to expand on impact to make them more lethal.
Forensic scientists found a fingerprint and DNA for McKenna who lived on the Buckles Lane caravan site and phone data revealed the driver of the vehicle had travelled to the site on July 26 to take delivery of the weapon.
Police launched a massive surveillance operation to establish the size of the supply network and discovered that the weapons were being handled by two brothers, Ricky and Robert Dorey.
Ricky, 43, was observed delivering firearms in his tow truck to Razzaq in Harrow on September 2 and police raided the address, discovering one of McKenna’s converted firearms in a hidden compartment in a wardrobe.
Detectives discovered that Razzaq was assisted in selling the firearms by a man called Abdul Rahman Saleh, 32, from Edgware and both men were arrested the same day in Hemel Hempstead.
Messages revealed that, on August 22, Razzaq told Saleh that if police ever tried to detain him, he should not hesitate to shoot at them in order to escape.
Self-taught McKenna’s clandestine factory was packed with equipment including a lathe, drill and welding equipment
Paraphernalia inside the caravan included a handbook on US Army improvised munitions, a saucepan possibly used for mixing materials. Police said it was unclear what purpose the remote control helicopter (centre) served
Evidence gathered at the caravans included gun enthusiast magazines and manuals on making weapons
Despite the arrests, the surveillance operation continued on McKenna and, on September 30, officers spotted him in a car driven by Smith, meeting a customer called Allan Crosby in a residential street in Sidcup, South London.
WhatsApp messages and voice notes later recovered from McKenna’s phone showed him arranging the meeting and referred to him making ‘seeds’ for delivery – underworld slang for ammunition.
Crosby, 44, ran another luxury car business called Sterling Sports and Prestige from an industrial estate in in Mereworth near Maidstone in Kent with a criminal associate called, Ryan Smith, 44.
Police raided the premises on October 23, finding another of McKenna’s converted weapons, along with a bag containing 20 rounds of hollow point ammunition.
The operation was led by Kent Police to avoid alerting McKenna and Crosby and Ryan Smith were released on bail.
Ricky Dorey was not arrested during the raid at Buckles Lane and, on the afternoon of November 29, he was seen at the home of Tammy Rigg, in South Ockendon, who had agreed to store a converted firearm and the pair were arrested.
Rigg, 39, was the partner of Patrick Loughnane, 59. from Hayes, who acted as a communications link between Ricky Dorey and McKenna, facilitating the transfer and sale of firearms.
The Dorey brothers were eventually arrested on December 10 and Loughnane on March 27 last year, as police wound up the last of the network.
In total, 11 individuals were convicted of selling or possessing blank firearms that had been converted by McKenna.
Car salesman Ryan Smith was convicted of firearms offences
Allan Crosby, who also ran the car sales firm, was convicted of firearms offences and a separate offence of possessing cocaine with intent to supply
Detective Chief Inspector James Tipple of the Met’s specialist crime command, said: ‘McKenna was quite clearly a very significant risk which escalated over a number of years. It’s very worrying to think what actual use he intended.’
McKenna pleaded guilty to conspiracy to sell prohibited firearms and ammunition and Smith admitted possession of a prohibited firearm.
Both also pleaded guilty to making explosives and possessing documents and videos useful for terrorism but denied they were planning a terrorist attack.
Crosby admitted possession with intent to supply around a half a kilogramme of cocaine and was found guilty of possession of a firearm. Smith was found guilty of possession of a firearm and ammunition.
Razzaq and the five other men face sentence next month.
