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One theory considered by the police is that the weapon was sold to hitmen after being brought back as a trophy by a British soldier from the Balkans. Mezosy was jailed in Belgium for two years for illegal arms trafficking to and from Croatia and Bosnia- Herzegovina in breach of a UN embargo during their civil wars.

But Detective Inspector Paul Maghie, of Hertfordshire police’s major crime task force, said that the rifle appeared to have been well looked after. A weapon used in a war might have been more “bashed about”, he suggested.

A more direct route between Mezosy and the British underworld is also possible. The dealer confessed to the police that he had supplied a gun used in a brutal murder in Belgium and had become friends with the suspected killer because they had “a common interest — the arms trade”.

An intelligence source said that Mezosy also had a British contact who was involved in supplying firearms to the IRA.

Hertfordshire police found that neither Roger Vincent, 33, who pulled the trigger on King, nor David Smith, 33, who drove the stolen van from which the weapon was fired, had any contacts in the armed forces that could account for their possession of the weapon. Both men were jailed for life. Similarly Julian Elfes, 38, who booked a hotel room for the assassin and was jailed for five years for assisting an offender, did not have any military contacts.

But detectives did find out that Vincent had made a journey to America, where he went to shooting ranges.

The bad blood between King and Mr Sharma arose as a result of their arrest on heroin- smuggling charges in 2002. When proceedings were swiftly dropped against King, Mr Sharma was heard to say “You grass” to him in court.

The police later learnt that King was trying to have Mr Sharma killed. Under a rarely-used procedure, officers were obliged formally to tell Sharma that he was the target of a possible contract killing. “There was a problem between King and Sharma,” Mr Maghie said. “There was an identified risk. The police had to serve two notices warning Sharma of that fact. He had to flee the country.” The police do not tell potential targets the identities of those suspected of trying to kill them.

The killers were reported to be friends of Mr Sharma. Police believe that a telephone call made by Vincent one minute after the murder to a mobile phone in France may have been to Mr Sharma.

Police are still trying to find Mr Sharma. “We want to question him in relation to the murder of Dave King,” Mr Maghie said. The Assets Recovery Agency has frozen £1.6 million from King’s estate under powers to seize the proceeds of crime, including a £1 million house in Winchmore Hill, North London. Customs & Excise told the agency that King was a drug trafficker and money launderer who could not have legitimately afforded his property.

An Oxfam researcher investigated the trail of the AK47 that killed King as part of the charity’s campaign against the proliferation of small arms. The murder will be added to its dossier against the arms trade. “This weapon would never have ended up on the streets of Britain if there were tough international arms controls,” said Anna Macdonald, Oxfam’s director of campaigns.

“Automatic weapons like this fire 600 bullets per minute and can kill anyone caught in the crossfire up to 800 metres away. They destroy hundreds of thousands of lives every year, especially in the world’s poorest countries.

“Oxfam is calling on world leaders at the UN world summit in New York next month to publicly back an international arms trade treaty to control the deadly flow of arms around the world.”

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