Four women and three men have gone on trial accused of gun smuggling after police smashed a transatlantic plot to send Glock pistols in packages from Texas to Bradford.

The conspiracy involved posting weapons in pieces from Houston hidden in hollowed out electrical equipment to a network of receivers in West Yorkshire, the jury heard.

Prosecutor Peter Moulson QC told Bradford Crown Court yesterday that police officers on both sides of the Atlantic investigated the gun-running plot.

“Those inquiries uncovered the existence of a well-planned, organised and determined conspiracy to import Glock pistols into the UK – more particularly Bradford and Leeds,” Mr Moulson said.

He told the jury 15 people had been accused of involvement in the UK end of the plot. Eight had pleaded guilty to the charges they faced. The seven defendants on trial all denied the allegations against them.

Mr Moulson said the conspiracy began when Mohammed Tariq, of Thornton Road, Bradford, was in contact with a man called Scotdale Liburd in the United States in September 2009, to import a Taser.

The jury heard that Tariq, who has pleaded guilty to his role in the conspiracy, then asked Liburd for “a baby Glock” – a pistol used by law enforcement agents – to be sent in pieces.

Mr Moulson said that those more heavily involved in the conspiracy set up a small network of “receivers” at addresses in Bradford and then Leeds.

On July 21 last year, UK Border Agency officers intercepted three packages at East Midlands Airport bound for two Bradford addresses. They contained the parts for two fully-operational 9mm calibre Glock self-loading pistols.

Mr Moulson said that Liburd had earlier bought 12 Glock pistols and a box of ammunition.

When parcels arrived in the UK, Tariq, Atique Arif, of Mannheim Road, Heaton, and Mudasser Iqbal, of Bradford Moor, would be contacted.

The court heard that all three, along with Sakawat Shah, of Salt Street, Manningham, and Mohsin Hussain, of Heidezberg Road, Toller Lane, Bradford, had pleaded guilty to possessing firearms with intent to endanger life.

The seven people on trial deny the importation of firearms. They are: Damian Waite, 25, whose address cannot be disclosed due to a court order; Shauna Kilkenny, 19, and Andrea Burton, 33, both of Haycliffe Lane, Little Horton, Bradford; Shazia Hussain, of Pannal Street, Great Horton, Bradford; Raees Khan, 33, of Folkestone Street, Bradford Moor, Akbar Sultan, 23, of Baring Avenue, Bradford Moor, and Michelle Cheung, 19, of Adel, Leeds.

Mr Moulson said that after Arif and Tariq were arrested and bailed they re-started their gun smuggling operation but, by now, Liburd was working with the United States authorities.

Phone calls were recorded by the American police about importation of more Glock pistols and details passed to officers in West Yorkshire, he said.

Police obtained a Glock 26 pistol and magazine and expert armourers took it to pieces and disabled it. It was packaged into four parcels delivered by undercover officers.

The police set out to track the packages and those involved with them.

Mr Moulson said they had recovered some of the guns smuggled into the city but had not found them all.

The trial continues.