Small Heath brothers jailed for possession of firearms

Image by West Midlands Police

Two brothers from Small Heath, Birmingham have been jailed after they were found in possession of firearms which included a ‘made for killing’ submachine gun found in a Birmingham outbuilding.

Azim Hussain, 34, and Noweed Hussain, 39, had kept a huge stockpile of dangerous arms which was tracked down by armed cops from West Midland Police, who raided their home in Birmingham on 16 July, 2021.

When the police officers arrived at the front door, Noweed tried to stall them while Azim went to the back of the house to hide all the arms and ammunition they had stored. After the officers entered, they did a thorough search of the Mansell Road property and found two bags, and Armani pouch and a Nike sports bag, in an outhouse.

Several guns and bullets were found in the bags. The Armani pouch contained a 9mm self-loading handgun which was “ready for use” with a bullet loaded into the barrel and another bullet in the magazine, while the Nike bag contained a shortened shotgun in three parts, an M3 0.45 calibre submachine gun and a magazine, and a Webley 0.38 calibre revolver. A .45 calibre bullet, a shotgun under-grip, 35 shotgun cartridges, 15 9mm cartridge cases re-fitted with ball bearings, two 9mm cartridges and a .45 calibre cartridge, were also found in the bags.

The younger brother, Azim, attempted to save his brother by taking all the responsibility and telling the authorities that he was looking after the firearms for someone else whose name he did not want to disclose. This, however, was proven to be a lie through the evidence which was gathered for the case.

Both the brothers were found guilty at the Birmingham Crown Court at an earlier session with Noweed being found guilty unanimously by the jury. Azim was sentenced to seven years in prison and Noweed was jailed for three years.

Detective Constable Darren Wilkie, from force CID who led the investigation by the police said, “You do not need to be a weapons expert to understand the damage a submachine gun – made for killing in World War Two – could do on the busy streets of Birmingham. The fact that the handgun was loaded with a real bullet in the barrel shows that they were ready for use, either by Azim and Noweed or other people.”

“I believe that our investigation has saved lives. We may never know what the brothers were planning but I suspect these were tools to commit serious crime. Thanks to the information we received and the action we took, four guns and 56 bullets are now in our secure store ready to be destroyed,” he added.