Gangs

Understanding Gangs in Kent
Nick Wilkinson
Head of Youth Justice and Safer Young Kent
LX – Lambeth
YR – Haringey/Tottenham
YE – Enfield
KF – Newham
Bexley RY
All about money (ABM)
Gas Gang
Squeeze for PS (S4P)
T-Block
NLS – North Somalis
Gmg – Get money gang
Custom House
Young Blood City
Stratford Boys
Racist Attack (RA)
Enfield
YE
Barnet
SX
Harrow
QA
Haringey
YR
Brent
QK
Hillingdon
XH
W'ham
Forest
JC
Redbridge
JI
Hackney
GD
Camden
EK
Tower
Hamlets
HT
Ealing
XB
Newham
KF
Southwark
MD
Hounslow
TX
Richmond
TW
PY / ZD - Bromley
DSN – Don’t say nothing
Squeeze for P$
(S4P)
ZD Gangs
Croydon Tamils
Shine My Nine / Ninerz
Kingston
VK
Lambeth
Wandsworth LX
WW
RG – Greenwich
Greenwich
RG
Bexley
RY
Lewisham
PL
Cherry Boys Original Cherry
Boys
Plumstead Line
T – BLOCK
Woolwich Boys
CGM
Merton
VW
Bromley
PY
Sutton
ZT
Barking and
Dagenham
KG
Havering
KD
Croydon
ZD
Barnfield Boys
Dockyard Estate
Why do youths join gangs ?
• Individual perspective - financial gain, sense of identity/belonging, peer
pressure, reputation, status & protection, coercion (the line up)
• Gang Incentive - Lesser sentences from courts, cost to employ is lower, often
crave independence, competitive
Risks to young person
• Arrest and conviction.
• Exposure to Violence and Weapons .
• Robbery.
• Health risks.
• Targeted wounding “dinking”.
The Woolwich Boys
• Prime motivation is financial gain through the supply of crack cocaine and
heroin.
• Capable of violence with episodic outbursts linked to business.
• Senior members tend to be males in their 20's of Somali
• Ethnicity is more diverse amongst younger members.
• Children and young people appear to be used as they are cheaper,
expendable and more easily coerced/ recruited with the promise of
money, clothes and seek the sense of freedom/ camaraderie.
How they operate
•
One or more senior members operate a drugs line in a specific geographic
location as part of a larger organised group.
•
Led by experienced dealer (late teens).
•
Marketing - Targeting drug users to establish network – Drug services/
Pharmacies.
•
Assisted by young people. (foot soldiers), Young people do bulk of work and
take most risks.
How they operate
• Drugs supplied from home of a vulnerable person ‘Cuckooing’, communal
areas in social housing, or open spaces such as parks.
• 24-7 drug dealing.
• Drugs delivered and money collected by either senior member or a
trusted middle manager. Several persons present to supply drugs to user.
• Drugs concealment.
The Market Place
Thanet Experience
• Drug addicts, sex offenders, mentally ill and other vulnerable people,
provide them with Class A Drugs and use their house to deal from Cuckooing!
• Drugs - primarily Heroin and Crack Cocaine will be wrapped in cling film
and concealed in Anus – Plugging!
• Recruitment process for Looked After Children (LACs), missing children,
CSE
• Operate 24 hour shift coverage, rotating use of different gang members
operationally to hamper effectiveness of police/partnership disruption
methods and investigations.
• Anal injury (spoons/jagged objects) – Dinking! / Pseudo Robbery.
The Thanet Experience (NRPs)
• “6 Eastern European (EE) clients. 1 weeks Heroin consumption £2,800.
• Gang members from London – operating in groups of three – armed with
list of drug abusers – knocking on their doors persistently and ‘sofa
surfing’ to enhance drug dealing capacity and reduce the risk of detection.
• Eastern Europeans working collaboratively with gang’s from London –
drug dealing, organised theft and prostitution.
• Increasing prevalence of knives and machetes.
• Drug Dealers on £1200 a day using London Taxis – now £2000 plus!
• “This place is worse than London!”
The Thanet Experience (Knives)
Jade’s Story
Next Steps
• Follow up to Gangs Conference
• Partnership Gangs Strategy
• Establishment of KSCB Emerging Vulnerabilities
Sub Group
Our Client Group – only a few years ago!