Alfa Carbine ‘straw buyers’ scheme: gun supplier to criminal underworld has prison sentence reduced

Two of the Alfa Carbine rifles cut down to pistols were found in the possession of Kishor Chandra Singh during Operation Carbine in 2022. Photo / Supplied Nz Police to Jared Savage

• Kishor Singh paid ‘straw buyers’ – firearms licence holders – $500 a time to buy weapons.
• Guns bought in Napier were destined for Auckland underworld.
• A spike in gun crime followed in the city two months later.
• Police eavesdropped on communications to uncover gun-supply scheme.

A former drug dealer who supplied modified Alfa Carbine pistols to the criminal underworld in the months before a surge in gun crime has had his jail sentence reduced.

Kishor Chandra Singh, 53, used bona fide firearms licence holders as “straw buyers” to obtain 21 rifles, of a type easily cut down into revolver-type hand guns.

Police believed the weapons, obtained in Napier between March and May 2022, were destined for Auckland, where there was a spike in gang-related gun crime in the following months.

Singh was sentenced in the Napier District Court in May last year after pleading guilty to nine charges including unlawful possession of firearms, possession of ammunition, possessing cannabis for supply, cultivating cannabis, possessing methamphetamine for supply, receiving, and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

He was sentenced to six and a half years in prison, with a minimum non-parole period of one year and nine months.

He appealed that sentence to the High Court, arguing that it was “manifestly excessive”, and there were errors in the sentencing judge’s decision.

High Court Justice Helen Cull agreed, quashing the sentence and replacing it with one of five years and 10 months, with no minimum period to be served without parole.

Singh is a former member of the Hells Angels, who was jailed for eight years and 11 months in 2012 for supplying methamphetamine.

The district court was told last year that that he managed to go straight initially after being released in 2016, but was netted by an electronic surveillance operation called Operation Carbine in 2022.

Operation Carbine identified Singh as being responsible for obtaining Alfa Carbine firearms, modifying them and selling them on.

Alfa Carbines, available in 9mm, .357 and .22 calibres, are easily cut down into hand guns, making them easy to conceal and appealing to gangs and organised criminal groups.

Although the length of a rifle in their unmodified state, they have a pistol-style grip and a chambered cylinder, like a revolver.

The Alfa Carbines are also prized in the gang world because they do not eject shell casings when fired, leaving behind less evidence to link the firearm to any shooting crime.

Police say they have seized numerous cut-down Alfa Carbines in recent years.

An Alfa revolver rifle in its unmodified state. The legal weapons are easily converted into illegal revolver hand guns by cutting off the stock and long barrel. Photo / Supplied

Singh, who does not hold a firearms licence, organised five associates, who had licences, to buy 21 carbines from Gun City in Napier over 10 dates from March to May 2022.

The total cost of the 21 weapons was $47,390. Singh paid his associates an additional $500 to supply each of them, according to a Crown summary of facts.

“Intercepted communications of an associate’s phone indicated that the weapons and ammunition were destined for Auckland, where a spike of gang-related gun crimes occurred in May and June 2022,” the summary said.

Police searched Singh’s home, vehicle and workshop in Hastings, and a storage unit he rented in Taupō, on August 10, 2022.

In Hastings, they found 7.3 grams of methamphetamine, 9 kilograms of packaged cannabis head, 1.5kg of cannabis scraps, a cut-down Ruger .22 rifle and loaded magazines. They found and seized $6000 from the house.

In the workshop, they found a Bobcat MT100 skid steer loader and tandem trailer, valued at $67,000, which had been stolen a week earlier.

In the Taupō storage unit, they found two Alfa Carbines with the stocks cut off and the barrels shortened, and the serial numbers ground off.

Two of the Alfa Carbine rifles cut down to pistols were found in the possession of Kishor Chandra Singh during Operation Carbine in 2022. Photo / NZ Police

In finding the original jail term excessive, Justice Cull said cumulative sentences had been imposed for two groups of offences, rather than concurrent sentences; the firearms and ammunition categories had been duplicated; the time imposed for the drug offending was too high; and an uplift for prior offending was “punitive” and wrongly included in the sentencing judge’s starting point.

She recalculated Singh’s sentence, starting with a jail term of four years for possession of the 21 Alfa Carbine rifles, and added four and a half years for the drugs possession, receiving and perverting the course of justice.

To that eight and a half years, she added six months for Singh’s methamphetamine dealing in 2012 before deducting two years and two months for his guilty pleas and another year for his personal background, rehabilitative prospects and time spent on electronically monitored bail.

This produced the new end sentence of five years and 10 months.

Kishor Singh in the Napier High Court in 2012 after being convicted of serious methamphetamine dealing offences.

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of front-line experience as a probation officer.