JURORS have been shown a modified pistol, a silencer and the ammunition three men are accused of conspiring to possess before a man was fatally shot by police on an M62 slip-road.

A packed court room heard how the Makarov semi-automatic gun and accessories were found in a white Audi A4 which had been stopped by armed police on the junction 24 Ainley Top exit on January 2, 2017, along with a white VW Scirocco.

Shots were fired at the car when the men were stopped, resulting in the death of 28-year-old Huddersfield man, Yassar Yaqub.

He was in the passenger seat of the rented Audi and Mohsin Amin, 32, from Manchester, was behind the wheel.

David Butlin, 39, of Huddersfield Road, Holmfirth, and Rexhino Arapaj, 28, of Thornlea Road, Huddersfield, were the driver and passenger of the other car respectively.

All three deny conspiracy to possess firearms and ammunition with intent to endanger life.

The weapon was produced at Leeds Crown Court by Detective Constable Jamie Hudson, an officer in West Yorkshire Police's Serious and Organised Crime Unit and a veteran of the Royal Engineers with 13-year's service.

He told the court it was a Russian-made Baikal version of the pistol which had been modified to fire nine millimetre bullets and hold a silencer.

The gun was first used as a sidearm by Russian police forces and the military in 1951 until 2003 when the manufacturer began making them for sport and personal protection.

Det Con Hudson said the weapon found in the vehicle had originally been made as gas pistol.

He said the silencer would be used to minimise the noise made by the gun's muzzle flash when it was fired and the sonic boom sound it makes as the bullet breaks the sound barrier to travel through the air.

The statement of another police forensic scientist was read out to the court after he had been given the weapon to test.

His report said the gun had been modified in Lithuania so it could fire nine millimetre bullets and they had been manufactured in Brazil.

Butlin also pleads not guilty to having a push dagger as an offensive weapon.

The court heard Butlin told police he had the weapon in the pocket of his boxer shorts when he was arrested on January 2 2017 and it was immediately taken from him.

The officer in the case responsible for the day to day management of the investigation, Detective Sergeant Simon Pridgeon, produced the weapon in court.

He showed the jury how it is gripped between the fingers when the owner clenches their fist.

The jury was also told of the sophisticated levels the defendants had allegedly gone to in a bid to conceal their communications.

Angus Marshall, a Digital Forensic Scientist at the University of York, was asked to examine some mobile phone records from the devices found in both cars.

He told the court some of the phones were found to have contained a "stealth sim".

He said: "These are something that have come to my attention in the last year.

"They are sims which offer services which mask the true identity of the caller.

"On the handset the call register will contain false numbers, numbers that have not been allocated and do not relate to numbers in existence."

Mr Marshall said a stealth sim can be bought in America for $900, giving the user three months service.

The court heard previously the vehicles were parked near the Café de Akbar in Leeds Road, Bradford, while Amin and Mr Yakub had a meal.

They had been tracked by the police from Huddersfield to Bradford, reaching speeds of over 100mph as they headed along the M62, it is alleged.