AN arms dealer who sold lethal assassins’ kits from the boot of his car has been jailed.

Career criminal Roger Rivers was found guilty of a string of firearm and drug offences last week.

A court heard he claimed to work as a lorry driver, but lived a life of luxury from his sprawling home in Greendale Drive, Radcliffe.

Following his conviction last Friday, Det Sgt Nick Edge, from GMP’s Xcalibre Organised Crime Unit, said: “Roger Rivers is a well-known drug dealer and a dangerous man.

“Clearly he had absolutely no care for where these guns would end up or what they could do to someone.

“Rivers lives in a huge luxurious house, and even has a flat screen TV in his bathroom, yet claims to only earn £8 per hour as a lorry driver. He is most definitely a career criminal and deserves to be where he is today.”

Woolwich Crown Court heard surveillance teams saw 43-year-old Rivers meet “customer” Sharitta Warren outside Manchester Piccadilly train station in August, 2007.

Warren had travelled from her London home by train to collect a plastic bag from the boot of Rivers’ car.

After the deal, she got straight back on the train to London, but was arrested as she got off in the capital. Police found two Baikal pistols, silencers and magazines loaded with ammunition in the bag.

A month later, police executed search warrants at Rivers’ home and his girlfriend’s flat in Salford.

Inside the flat, they found an industrial drugs press and equipment needed to produce class A drugs on a large scale.

They also found heroin and cocaine with an estimated street value of £50,000, almost 200 bullets, and a German Colt Double Eagle pistol.

Rivers was arrested and pleaded not guilty to the charges when he appeared at court. But a jury convicted him of the offences and he was jailed for 15 years.