The defendant was allegedly recruited by a prominent overseas organised-crime group to deliver a firearm to an assassin hired to carry out a retribution hit in London. This was a well-planned operation, involving the use of disguises and masks, with reconnaissance trips made by gang members to scope the site of the planned hit and how to time it, and to locate and rent a base for the operation. Communications were intercepted on Encrochat. The acquitted defendant had no knowledge of the plot or the firearm he was delivering and believed he had been hired for entirely unconnected purposes with all the key information deliberately withheld from him.
