Three men were convicted on 21st May 2026 of offences including possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life and possessing Class A controlled drugs with intent to supply, following a 13-day trial before the Crown Court at Wolverhampton. The Prosecution was represented by Graham Russell, leading Mia McNevin.
Adam Liaqat and Asad Khan were convicted of possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life, following the negligent discharge of a loaded firearm inside the stolen car, in which the two men were waiting at 04:27 on 23rd November 2025. Messages later recovered from Khan’s mobile phone suggested that he and Liaqat had gone out to conduct a shooting. The two men had travelled in disguise from a nearby hotel in two separate vehicles, before collecting the stolen car and driving to the cemetery off St Paul’s Road, Smethwick, where the unintended discharge occurred.
Asad Khan, sitting in the passenger side of the vehicle, was left with serious injuries to his left thigh after the bullet passed through his leg, then through the passenger door of the stolen car. After the injured Khan had been taken by taxi to hospital, Liaqat and his accomplices abandoned the hotel in which they had been staying, leaving behind controlled drugs and cutting agents.
When the police caught up with Liaqat days later, on 2nd December 2025, he and his accomplice Yakuba Sawaneh attempted to escape and were pursued in a dramatic police vehicle chase through Oldbury, during which the two men threw further controlled drugs, and a burner phone, from the car windows, before they were stopped and arrested.
Evidence from the telephone further connected Adam Liaqat to an earlier police investigation into an organised crime group supplying heroin and crack cocaine in Smethwick, which had been prosecuted by Graham Russell leading Rebecca Da Siliva in 2025, and in connection with which Liaqat was on bail at the time of the shooting.
Despite opposition from those defending the Accused, the Crown successfully applied for the two matters to be joined in one trial. Over the course of the trial, Graham and Mia presented evidence gathered by two West Midlands police teams (the County Lines Taskforce and the Major Crimes Team) in two distinct operations, ranging from the observations of test purchase officers and surveillance officers to telecommunications evidence and painstakingly-compiled CCTV footage, and expert evidence concerning ballistics and controlled drugs, to link Liaqat and Khan to the shooting, and to link Liaqat and Sawaneh to offences of possessing heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply.
The three Defendants will be sentenced on 20th July 2026.
The unusual facts of the case have attracted national media attention:
Graham and Mia were instructed by the CPS West Midlands Serious Violence, Organised Crime and Exploitation Unit.