When a tip-off came in to the Metropolitan Police in early 2024 about an underworld figure involved with illegal firearms, it was immediately clear he was no ordinary suspect.
Faisal Razzaq had previously been jailed for 11 years for acting as the lookout and getaway driver in the botched 2005 armed robbery at a travel agents that led to the cold-blooded murder of PC Sharon Beshenivsky.
Razzaq’s murky dealings would ultimately help detectives and counter terrorism officers expose a gun and explosives factory that was being run from Britain’s biggest traveller site and feeding weapons to organised crime gangs across London and the South East.
In a major operation that saw a huge area evacuated for public safety at the sprawling Buckles Lane camp in South Ockendon, Essex, Thomas McKenna was arrested at gunpoint by armed officers.
One of his three caravans was a workshop used to make the hoard of weapons they found there and at other locations, including six converted Turkish Ceonic P320 blank-firing pistols, a .22 calibre single shotgun disguised as a torch, a replica AK47 assault rifle ready to be made ‘live’ and component parts of a Sten Mark II submachine gun.
There was also ammunition – ‘dum dum’ bullets banned under international law due to their hollowed tips which expand on impact with devastating effect.
Lorry driver McKenna, 60, and his girlfriend, bus driver Tina Smith, 54, had also been stockpiling weapons and building improvised explosive devices for an imminent ‘race war’ against Muslims and immigrants.
In a text message to one associate, McKenna had written: ‘Our only chance for survival is strike now while we have the numbers and unalive the f****** lot of them.’
Armed officers trained weapons on the underworld armourer as he was ordered to back out of one of the three caravans he had at the site
A glum-looking Thomas McKenna, 60, after police raided his weapons and explosives factory at a sprawling traveller camp in South Ockendon, Essex
Evil McKenna converted blank-firing starter pistols into working weapons – and painted them black to make sure they looked like the real thing
Smith said in a message of her own: ‘They have to be gone from this country. Shoot them all.’
Now, after members of the gang were jailed today at Kingston Crown Court – including McKenna, who got 16 years – the Mail can reveal that the Buckles Lane camp has become a hotbed of crime after it ballooned into a black market caravan park where people can live anonymously in basic accommodation offered at knock down prices.
Insiders and terrified residents have complained that criminals and illegal immigrants are living there after owners of pitches rented them out illegally – a problem critics fear is being repeated at traveller sites around the country.
McKenna’s fall began with the launch of Operation Eatchief in May 2024, when detectives received intelligence about Razzaq who, publicly, was a respectable businessman who ran a luxury car hire business.
Surveillance led to the armed stop of a vehicle being driven by Pride Tuhwe, 26, an associate of Razzaq’s, on the way to the Notting Hill Carnival on August 24 that year.
Officers found one of the converted Ceonic pistols that was loaded with some of the dum dum bullets.
Fingerprint and DNA analysis pointed detectives towards McKenna – who had three previous convictions for possession of firearms and most recently had been jailed for nine years in 2005 – and he was put under watch.
This revealed Ricky Dorey, 43, a friend of McKenna’s who lived at the same traveller camp, was selling on the guns to customers including ‘top level [weapons] supplier’ Razzaq.
Razzaq then used his luxury car business to make contact with criminals seeking firearms.
Ricky was being helped by his brother Robert, 44, of Tilbury, Essex, who had only been released on licence in May 2023 after serving a 16-year jail term for an attempted murder in which a man was shot in the head.
One officer involved in the investigation said: ‘It’s not a good week if they hadn’t sold firearms. They were not choosy.’
Ricky was seen delivering firearms 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.
Razzaq was being assisted in selling the firearms by Abdul Saleh, 32, from Edgware, and both men were arrested the same day in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire.
Around this time, detectives picked up a ‘shocking’ communication from Razzaq telling Saleh that ‘if ever police tried to detain him, he should not hesitate to shoot at them in order to escape’.
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.
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, also 44.
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
Smith admitted making explosives and possessing documents and videos relating to making explosives likely to be useful for terrorism
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.
With the assorted members of the conspiracy now all known, detectives gave the go-ahead for the massive operation to arrest McKenna on November 6.
More than 80 officers included personnel from armed units and the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command rushed onto the Buckles Lane site early in the morning.
Dramatic footage showed live weapons and a Taser trained on a shaken McKenna as he was ordered to walk backwards through smashed door of a caravan with his hands held out behind him.
As well as the cache of weapons and explosives, the three-day search showed his illicit workshop was stuffed with equipment including a lathe, drill and welding equipment.
Also recovered were a hunting knife, throwing axes, knuckledusters, military clothing, a helmet, weapons magazines and munitions guidebooks.
Then there was the discovery of 4.5kg of ‘black powder’, as it was known – a homemade explosive, and materials to make more.
Two homemade bombs fashioned from plastic fish baiters had been casually stored in a jug by the dining room table.
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
Jars of powder containing ingredients including potassium nitrate for making improvised explosive devices were found on McKenna’s premises
More than 1,000 people now live at the Buckles Lane camp, which encroaches onto greenbelt land – 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
Caravans are advertised at cheap rates on the site, which is meant to be used only by members of the travelling showmen community
One contained shrapnel to make it even more deadly and there were 34 more fish baiters ready to be loaded with explosives.
Police also seized extremist material revealing McKenna’s links to extreme right-wing anti-Muslim ideology.
Prosecutor Emily Dummett told the sentencing hearing that McKenna had been ‘stockpiling explosives, firearms and improvised explosive devices for, as in [his] communications, a race war to fight and kill the Muslims, the immigrants, and so on’.
Associates were sent reams of texts exhorting them to arm themselves in preparation of ‘war’, Ms Dummett said.
In one, McKenna wrote: ‘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***ing lot of them.’
Elsewhere, he warned ‘We have to fully dominate the Muslims or there will never be peace,’ and ‘I have a bunch of s**t. I’m stockpiling. Hit them on the approach. Ambush them.’
A series of messages between February and August 2024 called for ‘a revolution ASAP’ and revealed McKenna was thinking of ‘kicking it off himself’. Chillingly, he predicted: ‘We’re going to be blowing s*** up soon enough.’
Smith, the prosecutor said, shared similar views, writing in a text of her own in 2024: ‘They have to be gone from this country. Shoot them all.’
Social media is filled with adverts for caravans to rent at the site
A double bed is squeezed into a room in a caravan, with thin curtains to keep out the light
The simple living room of one of the caravans that are on offer, typically for between £120 and £170 per week
The couple’s blasé attitude to the vast array of weapons they surrounded themselves with was exposed in almost comical text messages in 2022 where McKenna asked ‘Where is my pistol babe? I’ve lost it’, to which his partner replied ‘I’ve put it in the top drawer in the front room’.
Smith had also proudly sent her lover videos of her attempts to make the ‘black powder’ – although they were met with ‘scathing replies at her lack of expertise’.
Yet sources have told the Mail that the criminality at Buckles Lane extends well beyond McKenna and his gang due to the relative anonymity the camp offers.
One, who works to improve conditions for the showman community in Essex, said pitch owners had left and ‘put on as many static homes as they can just for the rental income’.
‘Organised crime groups have moved in and are causing problems with the showmen families still living there,’ they said.
‘In one case a Romanian gang hassled young girls from the community to try to recruit them into prostitution.’ A woman in her 50s who lives at the site added: ‘Some people contacted the MP who tried to help but the council still hasn’t done anything and we are living in fear in a place that was once perfect for our families.’
Former Thurrock Tory MP Jackie Doyle-Price repeatedly raised concerns with the council after being contacted by law-abiding residents of Buckles Lane before she lost her seat in 2024.
‘Thurrock Council continues to look the other way and has done nothing to make the site compliant with the law,’ she said.
Glasgow-born lorry driver McKenna had three caravans at the traveller site. Residents and other sources claim the area is now a hotbed of criminality
‘It was made very clear to the council that if things were not sorted it would become a lawless place and this is what is happening.’
There are 31 approved pitches for travelling showmen at Buckles Lane but this has been allowed to soar to 111 pitches without planning permission, hosting 835 static caravans in rows of up to 30, with homes being openly advertised for rent on social media.
An astonishing 76 percent of the site’s more than 1,000 occupants are not supposed to be living there, according to a report by Labour-run Thurrock Council.
Yet the authority has been accused of ‘turning a blind eye’ because the report raises concerns about a housing crisis if it had to rehome occupants it evicts.
Many are understood to be low-paid workers, who take advantage of cheap rents of around £120-£170 per week.
The report states: ‘The council will have to give careful consideration about how to deal with the issues related to the sub-letting of plots at Buckles Lane to non-showmen.
‘Interviews with showmen living on Buckles Lane and with those who have moved away suggest that levels of crime and anti-social behaviour from non-showmen are some of the primary reasons why households have moved away.
‘In addition, should a view be taken to return these plots to accommodation for showmen, the council may find itself in a position of having to rehouse a substantial number of households elsewhere in Thurrock.’
‘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
In 2022, Buckles Lane resident Craig Phillips, 44, was jailed for five years and ten months for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and transferring criminal property.
He was part of a gang brought to justice by Essex Police when it shut down a major drugs line.
Frank Matthews – the online pseudonym of a former Met Police detective sergeant who worked in organised crime intelligence – recently visited a contact at the camp.
He warned: ‘There would be all sorts of people down there and firearms.
‘It is not the sort of place you would want to turn up unannounced as you could face questioning and there are people down there who could make you disappear.’
The problem isn’t new, however. Back in 2018, there were complaints about how it had been allowed to expand illegally onto greenbelt land and in 2017 a councillor described the site as a ‘festering sore’.
Thurrock Council has issued a number of enforcement notices and obtained injunctions against some of the unauthorised development at Buckles Lane but it has yet to enforce any evictions or clearances.
A resident in his 40s said: ‘The people renting out statics are doing the council a favour because they don’t have anywhere and just making a few quid at the same time.’
A clip holding hollowed out dum dum bullets, that can cause catastrophic injuries as they are designed to expand on impact with their target
A Romanian living on the site while doing ‘construction work’ told the Mail: ‘It is basic but I can afford and once inside my caravan that’s it.’
One Facebook page found by the Mail listed static homes at Buckles Lane for £160 a week.
A man who answered the listed mobile phone number said he would not comment on the situation as ‘everything would be twisted’.
On another Facebook group set up to advertise lettings, a woman asked on January 19 if any were free but was told by the administrator they were full.
The issue of non-permitted occupants being allowed to rent units on sites has affected many parts of the country, with councils taking different stances.
Records of South Cambridgeshire Council meetings show surveys found many of its sites occupied by non-travellers but councillors opted for a ‘measured’ enforcement approach as ‘there may be some occupiers where the council will have a duty to provide alternative accommodation’.
In November, a Planning Inspector backed Wiltshire Council which had taken enforcement action against traveller site owner Patrick Ward.
His Greenacres site near Trowbridge was authorised for only traveller occupation of 28 mobile homes over 14 pitches.
Around 80 officers – many armed police – raided the caravans belonging to McKenna in November 2024
However, it was expanded to a total of 77 caravans, many of which were rented out on the open market, the planning appeal heard.
He must now evict non-traveller families and remove their homes or could face prosecution.
There are records of similar disputes at sites in Enderby in Leicestershire, Kettering in Northamptonshire and at Arlesey in Bedfordshire.
A whistleblower who has spent years helping travellers win retrospective planning permission for sites to occupy – and who agreed to talk on condition of anonymity – said: ‘It makes it hard to maintain the argument that there is a national shortage of traveller pitches if so many people are willing to rent their sites to anyone.
‘Some traveller landlords are seeing pound signs over anything else and making a fortune through an illicit rental scheme.
‘This is happening on sites across the country but local councils are reluctant to do anything as, if they take enforcement action, there will be a flood of new people applying to their emergency homeless list.
‘I know of cases where councils are even directing people who approach them as homeless to a traveller site, saying it is the only place available, although they will never admit this. Some people even have the rent paid to live on traveller sites through benefits.’
A Thurrock Council spokesman said: ‘Thurrock Council has an injunction in place which prevents any further development of land at Buckles Lane and action has been taken to enforce on this injunction several times.
Evidence gathered at the caravans included gun enthusiast magazines and manuals on making weapons
‘Work to resolve issues at the site is ongoing. This is a highly complex issue and involves a great many vulnerable people who the council are working to protect.
McKenna’s jail term today followed his guilty pleas to 14 charges including firearms offences and attempting to make explosives.
He and Tina Smith both pleaded guilty to making explosives – although they denied it was in connection to terrorism – and possessing documents and videos relating to making explosives likely to be useful for terrorism.
Smith further admitted possession of a prohibited firearm in respect of an illegally converted Ceonic pistol.
Allan Crosby, who was also sentenced today, got ten years after he admitted possession with intent to supply around a half a kilo of cocaine and was found guilty of possession of a firearm.
Ryan Smith was jailed for seven years after he was found guilty of possession of a firearm and ammunition.
Among the others being sentenced next month is Razzaq, 44, who was convicted of manslaughter, robbery and firearms offences for the armed robbery at Universal Express travel agents in Bradford where PC Beshenivsky’s was shot in the chest at point blank range.
He has admitted charges including conspiracy to sell prohibited firearms and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.
Detective Chief Inspector James Tipple, of the Met’s Specialist Crime Command, said busting the gang meant ‘some of the most dangerous members of our society will be off the streets of London for a very long time’.
The question is, how many others are quietly operating out of sight in similar circumstances – and will they be caught in time?