Former public schoolboy 'Lord of War' arms dealer could escape extradition due to government delays and his poor mental health
A former public schoolboy ‘international arms dealer’ could escape extradition thanks to astonishing Government delays and his poor mental health.
Father-of-two Guy Savage, 56, is said to have brazenly described himself as ‘the Lord of War’ as he masterminded multi-million-pound shipments of M16 assault rifles and silencers hidden in crates.
Armed Metropolitan Police officers arrested him in a swoop on his £1million suburban home in Pinner, north London, 14 years ago.
They shot out the tyres of his Mercedes and set neighbours’ net curtains billowing with stun grenades.
A judge swiftly granted a US extradition request on 21 charges which included breaches of rules on exporting firearms and fraud in relation to four entries on shipping documents said to be ‘designed to disguise unlawful activity’.
There were claims that 500 assault rifles had been found in Savage’s home and nearby business, and that weapons he supplied ended up in Iraq and the Middle East. He could be jailed for 20 years and fined millions.
But – 14 years on – the ex- pupil of £26,000-a-year Highgate School and former Home Office adviser remains free living in a £650,000 detached house in Uxbridge, west London.
Extradition bids stalled amid claims Savage’s mental health was worsening with the Home Office blaming everything from elections to Brexit and the pandemic for their failure to get him to America to face trial.
At Westminster Magistrates’ Court, London, on Thursday, his barrister Ben Cooper applied for the extradition order to be discharged because of the ‘unprecedented’ delays.
Any of the home secretaries in office in the interim should have acted on the extradition, it is claimed.
Savage denies smuggling weapons to Iraq and the Middle East, and maintains guns at his properties were lawfully held and export licences properly issued. He describes the US charges as simple ‘regulatory offences’ designed to protect American business interests.
His alleged gun-running is said to have taken place between 2003 and 2008, by which time multiple militias were killing each other and British and American soldiers in Iraq.
At the time Savage was chief executive officer of Sabre Defence Industries UK and of Sabre Defence Industries US.
The Home Office argues that he had asked for delays while he sought mental health treatment.
Chief magistrate Paul Goldspring said he hoped to rule on the case by the end of the month.
Savage had advised ministers on firearms policy, despite being convicted of possessing and selling prohibited pump action and semi-automatic rifles.
In 1996 he won a legal fight to continue selling firearms despite saying the ‘hysteria’ of the parents of the children shot dead at Dunblane had ruined his business.
In a 2004 email found by US prosecutors, Savage wrote: ‘This Iraq situation has companies banging on our door for M16s because we are the only supplier outside the US.’
A source told the Mail he called himself the Lord of War after the 2005 film starring Nicolas Cage as a ruthless arms dealer, adding ‘but he was operating in north London, not some camp in Afghanistan’.
