Revealed: Tyson Fury’s uncle Peter tried to trick police with fake arms dump plot involving secret stash of Mac-10 machine guns and rocket launchers, legal sources disclose

He has been called Tyson Fury’s ‘second father’, who guided him from obscurity to the heavyweight championship of the world.

Proud uncle Peter Fury was the Gypsy King’s trainer from a young age and stayed by his side as he rose to claim the heavyweight crown – which he will regain if he defeats Oleksandr Usyk in Riyadh tonight.

This positive contribution is in stark contrast to the darker side of Peter’s story as a former gangster kingpin who oversaw a major drugs operation in the North West of England.

But while the 56-year-old has long acknowledged his past as an amphetamine dealer, he has chosen to remain coy about a particularly shocking episode in his criminal career.

MailOnline can today reveal Peter Fury’s involvement in an astonishing suspected gun conspiracy that sheds new light on his past links with the criminal underworld.

As a result, Fury, who was then serving a prison sentence for drug offences, led police to a series of weapons shipments, including Mac-10 machine guns and Soviet-made RPG-18s.

But what appeared to be a genuine tip was soon suspected to be anything but. The gangster was later accused of arranging for the weapons to be planted.

Following information from Fury, the police found a total of four caches of weapons in Kent and London between November 1996 and October 1997.

He claimed to have tapped the information on the high security wing of HMP Full Sutton before passing it on to officials in return for a reduction in his security category and parole.

But when the decision was made not to downgrade his security categorization, Fury launched a legal challenge against the move – and that’s when claims about his involvement in the conspiracy first came to light.

According to a source with knowledge of the lawsuit, police responded to his judicial review by warning that the weapons caches were part of an elaborate ploy by the gangster to curry favor with authorities and reduce his parole, which involved buying the weapons and then abandoned. through his underworld contacts.

Officers’ suspicions about Fury’s tip-off were sparked by an ongoing investigation involving Liverpool gangsters John Haase and Paul Bennett, who were released early after leading police to the police. a number of arms seizures on Merseyside believed to be linked to the IRA.

It later emerged that Haase and Bennett used their criminal network to obtain and plant the weapons in an attempt to pervert the course of justice. They were both later sentenced to life in prison.

Senior officers knew Fury had links to Haase and Bennett in the high-security wing of HMP Full Sutton, and believed he had tried to replicate what they had achieved.

And after investigating his criminal contacts, they claimed to have found evidence supporting their theory.

In a book published in 2022, former Met detective Michael Hallowes revealed his frustration that the extent of the suspected gun conspiracy orchestrated by Fury appears to have faded from history.

MailOnline contacted the Met Police, Kent Police and Crown Prosecution to ask about the firearms discoveries and why Fury was never prosecuted, but was told the historical nature of the case meant the data could not be immediately retrieved .

Mr Hallowes, author of Operation Abonar: The inside story of Britain’s biggest arms smuggling scandal that government officials didn’t want told, told MailOnline: ‘It is a matter of public record that Haase and Bennett were prosecuted for their role in a similar scheme.

‘I found it extremely frustrating at the time that this person was not subject to similar prosecution. It’s clear he was trying to pervert the course of justice. And the loot he led us to included automatic weapons of the type used in gangland murders across the UK.

“How any official could have accepted the proposal presented to him is beyond belief. I can only conclude that this is why he was never prosecuted. It was buried to save face.”

The gun conspiracy has similarities to another plot orchestrated by criminals linked to the Kinahan cartel.

Earlier this year, a court heard how Liam Byrne and Shaun Kent planted machine guns in a bid to help Kinahan boss Thomas Kavanagh deceive authorities.

The National Crime Agency later found the cache of weapons buried in County Down, including three Skorpion machine guns, three Heckler and Koch self-loading pistols, a PPS43 submachine gun, a POF PK1 machine gun and an Uzi machine gun.

Kavanagh was sentenced to a further six years in prison, to be served consecutively. Byrne was jailed for five years and Kent was jailed for six years.

Peter Fury’s involvement in the gun conspiracy and his access to military-grade weapons will lead to more questions about the disturbing relationship between boxing and organized crime.

Although he has acknowledged his criminal past while chatting with podcasters, he has chosen not to discuss this particularly dramatic episode.

Speaking to former reality star James English, Fury told how he grew up on a travel site in Lancashire and made a living as a door-to-door salesman after leaving school several years earlier.

He claimed to have built a successful business selling used cars before he started supplying amphetamines, which led to a 10-year prison sentence in 1995.

Fury appeared bewildered by the tight security arrangements put in place to transport him while in custody. He told the podcast that on one occasion police provided air support while he was chained in a security van.

Tyson has spoken about how Peter became a central figure in his life after his own father John was in prison.

In his autobiography, the boxer told how Peter became like a “second father to him” on their journey to the heavyweight championship of the world.

However, Tyson later broke away from his uncle and his promoter Mick Hennessy after their relationship soured.

In his autobiography, Tyson said, “As for Peter, it’s heartbreaking how our relationship fell apart because at one point in my life he was like a second father to me.”

Peter Fury was sentenced to two years in prison in 2008 after pleading guilty to a number of money laundering offences.

Prosecutors said they believed he had “deceived” authorities about his assets while imprisoned for drug offenses in 1995.

Prosecutors added that they believed he had “laundered hidden money through real estate transactions.”

MailOnline has contacted Peter Fury for comment.