Busted soldier hid lethal arsenal of weapons in his home

Jul 20 2008 By Marion Scott And Heather Greenaway

A DEADLY cache of illegal weapons has been discovered at the home of a Scots Army sergeant.

Duncan MacGillivray, 40, stashed the guns and ammo after tours in Iraq, Northern Ireland, the Falklands and Germany.

The lethal haul included an AK-47 Kalashnikov rifle, a Browning Hi-power sidearm, a SPAS-12 shotgun - as used by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the movie Terminator - an MK4 submachine gun and thousands of bullets.

As an Army quartermaster, MacGillivray was responsible for equipping troops and had access to huge amounts of weapons and ammunition.

He claimed the guns belonged to his brother and were being used to pay off debts to drug barons.

Former Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency chief Graeme Pearson said last night: "Gangsters are desperate to get their hands on this quality of firepower. This soldier's ability to get his hands on such a high calibre of firepower is absolutely terrifying.

"Each of the weapons found would be highly prized in the criminal world. These type of guns are only used for one thing - killing people.

"The MoD must look very carefully at their procedures to ensure this cannot happen again."

Rogue soldiers make a fortune by selling guns to crime lords.

Gangsters Raymond Anderson, 46, and James McDonald, 34, were jailed for life in May for using military weapons in the underworld murder of Michael Lyons, 21.

The weapons hidden by MacGillivray had a street value of around s10,000.

The cache was discovered during a raid on MacGillivray's parents' home in Dunoon by MoD police.

They were investigating the disappearance of two sets of army-issue night vision goggles worth s1700.

The weapons had been broken up and stored separately in his bedroom and a storage lock-up rented in his own name.

Although deactivated, they could all have been used as firearms, one with the simple use of an Allen key.

MacGillivray had a firearms certificate for hunting which covered some of the weapons seized - but five guns and the 2500 bullets found were illegal. He was found guilty of seven offences by a jury in front of Lord McEwan at the High Court in Paisley and he now faces a heavy jail term. Charges included the possession of illegal firearms and ammunition.

Last night his glittering military career was in tatters.

MacGillivray's father Alister, 66, was a police officer in Callander and Argyll. He settled in Sandbank, Dunoon, with wife Isobel, 65, to bring up their family.

The couple adopted Duncan when he was a baby and brought him up alongside another adopted son, Alisdair, 37. While Duncan joined the Army as a 16-year-old, Alisdair drifted into heroin abuse.

MacGillivray claimed it was Alisdair who stashed the arsenal because he was in debt to drug dealers. He said: "People my brother associates with might have pressurised him."

And he claimed: "The drug-user community may have wanted him to get the weapons working."

But Advocate Depute Paul Kearney described MacGillivray's story as "ludicrous".

Alisdair repeatedly denied any knowledge of the guns, or that drug dealers wanted ammunition stored to pay off a debt.

He admitted taking heroin in the past but claimed he had been "clean" for more than three years.

During police questioning, MacGillivray mostly answered "no comment" and denied any knowledge of the weapons. He will be sentenced next month. MacGillivray's role as a staff sergeant in the Royal Logistics Corps gave him ample opportunity to handle dangerous weapons.

Retired Major Bob Ritchie MBE, who spent 40 years with the Black Watch, said: "The MoD must look to themselves to implement far more rigorous scrutiny of personnel returning from areas where guns like this are available.

"It's obvious these weapons have been smuggled back home in kit and that just shouldn't be allowed to happen, especially since so many men returning from zones like Iraq are unstable of mind.

"This type of high-calibre military quality weapons are exactly what hardened criminals are desperate to get their hands on."

He added: "Logistics perform the jobs of quartermasters, supplying everything from guns and bullets to uniforms and badges to forces wherever they are needed both here and overseas.

"They get full access to a lot of very scary stuff, at depots all over the world.

"In warzones like Afghanistan and Iraq, all kinds of weapons are readily available to those who are so inclined." SNP defence spokesman Angus Robertson MP said last night: "While it isn't unknown for military personnel to keep mementos from a tour of service, the scale of this cache is beyond belief.

"There are grave questions now for the Ministry of Defence on how it was possible for this stockpile to be built up unnoticed.

"Clearly, the current safeguards haven't worked in this case, and we need a top level review to restore public confidence."

An MoD spokesman said: "It would not be appropriate to comment until sentencing."

Last month it was revealed race hate killer and ex-Black Watch sergeant Michael Ross stashed a cache of weapons before he was convicted of killing Orkney waiter Shamsuddin Mahmood. He then tried to flee the court.

POLICE allowed the Sunday Mail to picture the weapons seized.

1. Air rifle: Requires no firearms certificate. Can be purchased by anyone over the age of 18.

2. Enfield L42 sniper rifle: British Army's standard rifle until 1957.

3. Remington rifle: Used for clay pigeon shooting.

4. Browning pistol: Banned weapon with street value of s1800.

5. Sterling L2A3 sub-machine gun: Banned, with street value of s2000.

6. Kalashnikov AKM assault rifle: Illegal, with a street value of s1000.

7. Stalker rifle: Legal, covered by firearms certificate.

8. Armalite AR-15 rifle: Legal, covered by firearms certificate and used by US forces.

9. FN-FAL rifle: Used by Nazis in WWII, the Khymer Rouge in Cambodia and some terror groups in Ulster. Street value up to s1000.

10. SPAS Shotgun: Illegal self loading shotgun used by Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator movies, street value s1200.

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