Full details of what police discovered during a raid on the Finsbury Park in 2003 can be revealed only today after the conclusion of Abu Hamza’s trial on race hate charges.

The cleric, who preached at the mosque, was found guilty on 11 of 15 charges, including six counts of soliciting to murder and inciting racial hatred.

Officers risked offending delicate religious sensitivities by raiding the mosque, but their actions were justified by the mini-arsenal of weapons, terrorist paraphernalia and forged passports they found inside.

Operation Mermant, which began in the early hours of January 20, 2003, involved scores of officers in body armour using battering rams to enter the building.

The cache of equipment discovered included chemical warfare protection suits, or NBC (nuclear, biological and chemical) suits, as they are technically known. They were found together with three blank-firing pistols, a stun gun and CS spray. Officers also found a gas mask, handcuffs, hunting knives and a walkie talkie.

Detectives believe the equipment was being used in terror training camps located somewhere within the UK. It is not clear where these were, but speculation in the past has centred around remote parts of Wales, in particular the Brecon Beacons, and national parks such as those in the Highlands, Yorkshire Dales or Lake District.

"Our assessment was that this was material that had been used in training camps, probably here in the UK," a senior police source said.

Some of the material was found close to Hamza’s office, although police sources admit they could not directly connect them to the preacher.

Police also found more than 100 stolen or forged passports and identity documents, laminating equipment, credit cards and chequebooks hidden under rugs and concealed in ceiling spaces. One officer recalled pulling down part of a ceiling to find passports raining down on him.

The raid followed the discovery of what was then thought to be ricin at a flat in the nearby North London neighbourhood of Wood Green during a swoop earlier that month, on January 5. The material found there went on to form the core of the trial of the al-Qaeda suspect Kamel Bourgass and the others accused of involvement in an alleged plot to manufacture the deadly poison.

A senior police source said that officers were led to Finsbury Park by a "clear evidential lead" discovered during the Wood Green raid, which left police with "no option" but to search the mosque. This is believed to be an envelope, which had the address of the mosque on the front, in which police found recipes for chemicals including ricin and cyanide.

It was a clear sign that the mosque, under Hamza’s stewardship, was more than just a talking shop.

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