Two young men who plotted to shoot a rival with converted blank-firing pistols will serve more than 16 years behind bars after a Greater Manchester Police investigation uncovered their arsenal and murderous intent.

Dominik Pelikan, 20, of Mayfair Gardens, Rochdale, received eight years and nine months for transferring a firearm, possessing ammunition and converting a weapon, while Mohammed Raji, 21, of Mansfield Road, Oldham, was sentenced to seven years and six months for possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life.

The pair’s scheme unravelled after Pelikan was tracked travelling from Manchester to Bradford in 2024, entering a shop notorious for supplying blank-firing guns and leaving with an Ekol Botan blank-firing handgun. On 2 August he bought 8 mm solid brass from a DIY store; hours later officers stormed his bedroom and seized an iPhone, hand tools, ammunition and a barrel matched to the Ekol Botan. Messages between the pair showed Raji boasting, “Yh bro my man was giving me chattin so I showed him Im gunna be in gorton today,” to which Pelikan replied, “got 2 tings ther just not many shells fam.” Raji answered, “minor just need to hit him once.”

On 23 August firearms officers arrested Raji at a Mansfield Gardens address where a black handgun and ammunition were found stuffed in a plastic bag at the rear of the property. Investigators also discovered Pelikan had bought 17 further blank-firers between December 2023 and April 2024. Detective Inspector Richard Castley of GMP’s Serious Organised Crime Group said: “Today’s sentence… sends a clear message about how seriously we treat firearms offences… This converted firearm could have caused serious injury or could have killed someone, which was precisely what these offenders were planning.”

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