10 Oct, 2021 @ 09:15
1 min read

British fugitive traced to Spain’s Madrid faces gun charges

Lisa Justice For All

A BRITISH man wanted by UK police on firearms charges has been arrested in Spain’s capital city.

Clinton Blakey, 36, was traced to Madrid after he disappeared after failing to appear at Leeds Magistrates Court.

He was due to face charges over a Glock semi-automatic pistol, a Howa bolt-action rifle and 200 rounds of ammunition, seized at a property on Stainbeck Lane, Leeds.

An international warrant for his arrest was issued.

The guns and ammo he is accused of being linked to were being held by Paul Shepherd, 43, a former professional footballer, who was convicted of possessing the guns and ammunition in June and awaits sentencing.

Clinton Blakey Custody Pic
Clinton Blakey

Blakey was suspected of arranging the  transport of the  firearms and ammunition from Liverpool to Leeds where they were then stored by Shepherd.

Blakey’s original arrest followed on from Shepherd’s and was part of Operation Venetic – the UK law enforcement response to the takedown of encrypted communications platform EncroChat.

Their arrests triggered a number of others across West Yorkshire, Merseyside and the North East.

One of these was Gerard Wignall, 33, from Merseyside, who was sentenced to 16 months in prison after his DNA was found on the rifle in Shepherd’s house.

Two further men, Carl O’Flaherty, 36, and Shane Kameka, 40, also from Leeds, were arrested for their involvement.

O’Flaherty awaits sentencing and in July Kameka received a five month sentence for his part in arranging transport of the firearms.

An additional man from Durham, Darryl Hall, 36, was arrested, charged, and is due to stand trial next year.

NCA Operations Manager, Nigel Coles, said: “Our team in the UK worked closely with our international liaison officer network and Spanish police to track Blakey down, leading to his re-arrest.

“Illegal firearms are used by criminals to threaten, intimidate, and destroy lives. No matter the lengths we need to go to, we never stop working to bring suspected firearms traffickers to account.”

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Dilip Kuner

Dilip Kuner is a NCTJ-trained journalist whose first job was on the Folkestone Herald as a trainee in 1988.
He worked up the ladder to be chief reporter and sub editor on the Hastings Observer and later news editor on the Bridlington Free Press.
At the time of the first Gulf War he started working for the Sunday Mirror, covering news stories as diverse as Mick Jagger’s wedding to Jerry Hall (a scoop gleaned at the bar at Heathrow Airport) to massive rent rises at the ‘feudal village’ of Princess Diana’s childhood home of Althorp Park.
In 1994 he decided to move to Spain with his girlfriend (now wife) and brought up three children here.
He initially worked in restaurants with his father, before rejoining the media world in 2013, working in the local press before becoming a copywriter for international firms including Accenture, as well as within a well-known local marketing agency.
He joined the Olive Press as a self-employed journalist during the pandemic lock-down, becoming news editor a few months later.
Since then he has overseen the news desk and production of all six print editions of the Olive Press and had stories published in UK national newspapers and appeared on Sky News.

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