Michael Sammon, 49, was the head of a gang which converted hundreds of cheap flare guns into deadly weapons at an engineering factory in Ancoats
Michael Sammon, 49, was the head of a gang which converted hundreds of cheap flare guns into deadly weapons at an engineering factory in Ancoats, Manchester, before selling them on at a vast profit. He had "grandiose" plans to set up another factory in Spain.Many of the altered firearms have been traced to shootings, assaults and armed robberies throughout the country resulting in at least two fatalities, including the death of 12-year-old Kamilah Peniston who was accidentally shot in the head by her teenage brother, Kasha, in Gorton, Manchester. The weapon had been kept at the family home of their mother, Natasha, by her boyfriend. More than 270 of the blank-firing alarm flare guns were bought in Germany for €50 (£43) each and smuggled into the UK by ferry. Once converted, the handguns fetched up to £750 on the black market. Most were recovered but 100 remain unaccounted for. Sammon, known in criminal circles as Mickey the Fish, was convicted at Manchester crown court of con...