A DRUGS runner who was caught by police with a stash of heroin was then ordered to “mind’ two modified pistols by gangsters.

Khy Carr is now starting a nine-year jail sentence after a judge ruled that the weapons were capable of firing ‘lethal’ projectiles.

Police spotted Carr in a stolen VW Golf in September 2018, which was bearing false registration plates, Minshull Street Crown Court was told.

The 22-year-old was reluctant to pull over, the court heard, but officers deployed a ‘stinger’ device and brought the vehicle to a halt.

Prosecutor Mr Gilmour said wraps of crack cocaine and heroin were seized from the console between the two front seats, alongside two mobile phones, which had messages about heroin and cannabis dealing stored on them.

Carr was also found to have £720 in cash - which he later claimed had been left to him by his mother.

He was released under investigation before he came to the attention of the police again just over a year later.

Carr had moved into a supported living flat in Whitefield with a new girlfriend, said Mr Gilmour.

But a cleaner, unaware anyone was residing there, had gone in and discovered a number of shoeboxes, the court heard.

She called in a manager and he found two starting pistols, one loaded, with a number of cartridges and more than 200 grams of heroin.

CCTV footage obtained later showed Carr moving a number of objects into the flat, including an item wrapped in a grey towel which appeared to be the pistols.

Mr Gilmour said tests showed the pistols had been adapted to fire nine millimetre cartridges.

Carr, of Bowker Street, Radcliffe, had pleaded guilty to possession of class A drugs with intent to supply and possession of prohibited weapons and ammunition.He already had a previous drug dealing conviction.

Stuart Duke, defending, said his client had endured a “tragic childhood” but accepted this was no excuse for involving himself in such offending.

Jailing him, Judge John Potter said: “This was a stash of drugs and guns which you were in control of for the benefit, at least in the short term, as you owed a debt to the criminal underworld, and to their benefit, as they were involved in serious and organised criminal activity.”