Far-right nut Thomas McKenna 'planning race war' from gun and explosives workshop set up on Buckles Lane travelling showman site

THIS is the first picture of a far-right crank who set up a gun and explosives workshop on Britain's biggest travelling showmen's site, as reported by UK News and Investigations last week.

A sentencing hearing at Kingston Crown Court today, January 29 2026, heard Thomas McKenna, 60, (above) was converting blank-firing Ceonic pistols imported from Turkey into deadly firearms and making expanding ammunition, for sale to organised crime gangs across London and the south east, in a static caravan transformed into a makeshift workshop on the Buckles Lane site in South Ockendon, Essex.

Video below shows a huge armed police raid on the site in November 2024 and the moment McKenna was arrested.

The sales were through an organised crime network of which Faisal Rassaq (below) was a key member.

Rassaq was jailed in March 2007 for his role in the fatal shooing of PC Sharon Beshenivsky (below bottom) in Bradford, West Yorkshire, on November 18 2005, during the botched robbery of a travel agents. 

He acted as the getaway driver and was sentenced to 11 years in jail for robbery and manslaughter.

He was released from prison in 2017.

But, the court heard that separately, McKenna, who lived at the site with girlfriend Tina Smith, 54, (below) a bus driver, was also stockpiling weapons and making crude explosives for what he described as a race war.

Apart from his girlfriend, no one else in the crime gang has been implicated in any of the far-right activities.

Prosecuting, Emily Dummett, told the court: "McKenna agreed to supply those converted firearms, together with compatible modified, especially dangerous, ammunition, knowing them to be lethal, and knowing that the end customers could have no legitimate purpose for wanting them.

"Those that have been recovered by the police in this case, had ended up, in the hands of criminals, on the streets of Harrow; at a residential address in Edgware from where they were to be transferred on on the streets of Stanmore during a police weapons sweep, and on an industrial unit near Maidstone.

"As McKenna, and all those who were party to the conspiracy knew, the only reason for someone to acquire a lethal firearm with lethal ammunition to go with it, in these circumstances, is to have it available for use to threaten, cause serious harm or kill someone else. It is perhaps due only to the efforts of the police – the Metropolitan Police Specialist Crime Unit, the Essex and Kent Constabularies and the Counter Terrorism Division – that the converted firearms and ammunition – at least, those which have been recovered by the police as part of this investigation – had not, on the available records, yet been reported as having been used with those serious consequences by the time they were seized.

"Whilst one of McKenna’s purposes in making/converting firearms and modifying ammunition was, as he has accepted, to make them available for transfer to customers as part of the conspiracies... there is also evidence that McKenna was stockpiling other weapons – including other firearms, and explosive substances and IEDs (improvisd explosive devices) – for use in a ‘race war’ to fight and kill ‘the Muslims’ / ‘the immigrants’ and so on.

"On the communications evidence, namely, what McKenna wrote in messages to friends and associates, the purpose for which McKenna was stockpiling those weapons was in anticipation of their violent use to 'kill', 'shoot', 'unalive' 'neutralise' etc. the Muslims “before they are too many.'

"By way of example (in one he said) 'bro, that's why I believe our only course for survival freedom is strike now while we have the numbers and hard unalive the f***ing lot of them.'

"McKenna encouraged other associates to make the preparations for the same purpose. McKenna’s way of thinking about 'the Muslims' was one that Tina Smith, on the communications evidence, shared, and at the very least she assisted McKenna knowing what he believed."

Although the court was told that there was no evidence tat he had intended to attack any people or locations.

The workshop was equipped with drills, lathes and welding equipment to carry out the illegal conversions and to transform the ammunition into deadly bullets, which expand inside the body with the aim of causing bigger injuries.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) has previously warned about the use by organised crime gangs of converted blank guns imported from Turkey which are made into firearms in backroom workshops.

Police who raided the Buckles Lane site (below) on November 6 2024, also found gunpowder and evidence of attempts to make homemade bombs inside the converted mobile home.

Buckles Lane site was authorised as a site for travelling showmen with 31 caravan pitches for winter quarters after development began there.

It has since been unlawfully expanded to 111 pitches, housing more than 1,000 people.

Unbeknown to other occupants of the huge site, McKenna, who had three mobile homes there, had converted one of them into the deadly workshop.

Police raided McKenna's address after he was suspected to be the supplier of a converted pistol and expanding ammunition which was found during a police search of a 'high end' used car dealership in Mereworth, near Maidstone, Kent, two weeks earlier on October 23.

Allan Crosby and Ryan Smith, also known as Robert Sterling, both 44, ran the business called Sterling Sports and Prestige Ltd from a unit at the Alders Industrial Estate.

The gun and ammunition were found concealed under packets of paper while bundles of cash were found inside in a paper bag under the office desk.

When armed police later swamped McKenna's property they also found evidence of him being linked to the extreme right wing anti Muslim activity and of attempts to make improvised explosive devices with gunpowder stored at the workshop, leading to counter terror police being brought into the search.

Police also found documents and videos showing how to make guns and explosives from scrap metal, including one with instructions on building a homemade Sten submachine gun.

A source linked to the site said: "People are used to police turning up on the site, but this was something else. There was a full blown troop of armed police in helmets searching everywhere and police vehicles all over the place.

"They said they wouldn't say what was happening but someone managed to get out of one of them that it was to do with bombs and terrorism."

McKenna and Tina Smith were arrested on suspicion of several firearms offences.

Ahead of the trial McKenna admitted a string of offences including converting imitation firearms into firearms, conspiracy to sell or transfer prohibited firearms, conspiracy to sell or transfer prohibited ammunition, possession of prohibited firearms and possession of prohibited ammunition.

Tina Smith admitted one count of possession of a prohibited firearm in respect of one of the converted Ceonic pistols.

She and McKenna also both pleaded guilty to making explosives, while he admitted attempting to make explosives, but they denied it was in connection with terrorism and they also denied being in possession of other weapons including crossbows, throwing axes, a hunting knife and knuckle dusters for a terrorist purpose.

But, the pair did admit to the collection of documents and videos relating to making explosives which were likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, including one specifically on how to make a Sten submachine gun from scrap metal parts.

Details of McKenna and Tina Smith's pleas to the firearms offences emerged during the trial last October of Crosby and Ryan Smith who denied possession of the firearm found at their car business.

The jury was not allowed to know about the terrorism charges for fear it may prejudice the case and details can only be reported after the lifting of this reporting restriction.

As part of the wider firearms investigation, both men were arrested at their homes on March 20 2025 after DNA evidence linked Smith to the gun and Crosby to the ammunition.

In June 2025 Crosby admitted possession of the ammunition and also possession with intent to supply nearly half a kilogram of cocaine found at his home at the time of his arrest.

Prosecuting their trial, Quinn Hawkins said: "They obtained the firearm and ammunition from a man by the name of Thomas McKenna who was engaged in converting and manufacturing items such as these. This they did so through a criminal network of individuals concerned in the supply of prohibited firearms and ammunition to those who wanted them, in London and the surrounding counties.

"McKenna was at the time living on a large site at Buckles Lane, South Ockendon. He had a number of static caravans, one of which was set up as a workshop – well equipped with drills, lathe, welding equipment etc.

"It became clear that McKenna was converting blank-firing pistols into viable lethal firearms, which are prohibited under the law.

"His premises were searched by the police on November 6 2024, and a number of prohibited firearms, including converted Ceonic pistols, compatible ammunition, the workshop and tools were discovered.

"Blank-firing pistols are sold with their barrels purposefully obstructed. McKenna was converting these by drilling or otherwise machining out the obstruction, so that the firearm could then be used to discharge ‘real’ bullets.

"He was also producing prohibited ammunition, by modifying blank 9mm PA calibre cartridges so as to insert within them projectiles that are designed to expand on impact.

"These were suitable for use in the converted Ceonic pistols, and could therefore be supplied together with the lethal firearm, ready to go. One of McKenna’s purposes in converting firearms and modifying ammunition was to provide them for onward transfer/sale, as part of the criminal enterprise that I have mentioned."

The wider firearms supply crime gang (above) was made up Rassaq, Abdul Saleh, Patrick Loughnane, 59, his girlfriend, Tammy Rigg, 39, Ricky Dorey, 43, who also lived at Buckles Lane, his brother Robert Dorey, 44, McKenna and his girlfriend.

The court heard that cell site evidence showed that on September 18 2024, McKenna travelled from Buckles Lane to Sterling Sports and Prestige, while Crosby was also in the area.

Surveillance and cell site evidence showed that 12 days later he and Tina Smith parked in Palm Avenue, Sidcup, close to where Crosby was living.

The prosecution said this was to handover ammunition and it followed phone contact between McKenna, Loughnane and Ricky Dorey, during which there was mention of 'seeds', a criminal term for ammunition.

The postcode for the meeting was also provided to McKenna by Ricky Dorey, via Loughnane.

The court heard that Crosby and Ryan Smith, from Dunton Green, Kent, were both convicted in 2016 for separate offences of supplying large amounts of cocaine and received significant sentences before becoming friends in prison.

Ryan Smith also met Robert Dorey in HMP Coldingley in Surrey during the same sentence.

Subsequent forensic examination of the gun and ammunition found at the car business discovered they were made in an identical way to those found at McKenna's workshop.

Crosby denied any knowledge of the gun and Smith said he had not previously seen the gun or ammunition and had no idea how his DNA was on the firearm.

The jury found Crosby guilty of possession of the firearm and Ryan Smith guilty of possession of the firearm and ammunition.

Razzaq, Saleh, Loughnane, from Hayes, both Doreys and Rigg all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to sell or transfer prohibited firearms in connection with separate sales at a separate hearing and will be sentenced at Harrow Crown Court on February 26.

Razzaq was also assisted in converting firearms by Saleh, 32, (above) who lived nearby.

Patrick Loughnane (below) acted as a communications between Ricky Dory and McKenna, facilitating the transfer or sale of firearms. Alan Crosby and Ryan Smith were two customers who received a converted firearm and they were convicted after the trial of possession of converted firearm and ammunition.

Rigg (below) agreed to store a converted firearm in her house in South Ockendon.

Hossein Zahir KC, defending McKenna, said his firearms offences were at the lower end of the scale suggesting the guns were unsophisticated and simple to convert.

He said none of the recovered pistols had been used.

He said he was simpl experimenting with explosives, due to an interes in firearms, using manuals and videos "widely available" online.

He said McKenna's messages about race war and killing Muslims were "fantasies".

He said: "There are expressions of intolerance, anger, racist ideation. But there are no targeted threats of violence nor an actual targeting even in the most generalised way."

Charles Langley KC, defending Ms Smith, who had no previous convictions, said there was insufficient evidence that she knew it was being used in IEDs.

A psychiatric report also found her to be dependent and compliant in relationships and manipulated into helping McKenna.

The sentence resumes on February 6 to hear from lawyers for rosby and Ryan Smith, who is not related to Tina.