Drug gangs ‘spreading wings’ to find new markets

Officers believe as many as 54 of the capital’s most dangerous gangs have “tentacles” in other towns and cities, operating in a similar way to business franchises.

The warning came a day after co-ordinated raids in the Thames Valley, Edinburgh, Essex, Bedfordshire and London in which 29 people were arrested in an operation targeting the south London-based GAS gang.

But the senior officer who speaks on gangs for the Association of Chief Police Officers said “significant headway” was being made in dealing with gang-related crime, with a decrease in gun and knife crime.

Deputy Chief Constable David Thompson of West Midlands Police said gangs had always relocated in search of opportunities to make money or in response to pressure from police on their home turf. He rejected suggestions that the situation in the UK could be compared with the problems experienced in the US.

Following Thursday’s raids, Detective Chief Inspector Tim Champion, from the Met’s Operation Trident gang crime command, said: “What we are noticing is that gangs are spreading their wings, so rather than working in London, they are going into the counties, and even Scotland, to deal drugs. So basically it’s an expanding trade.”

Mr Thompson told Today that organised criminals have “never really recognised boundaries”.

“In my time in policing I have seen gangs relocate,” he said. “Sometimes it’s for chaotic reasons such as family reasons, but of course sometimes people will follow opportunities to increase opportunity for drug dealing, and of course if there’s police enforcement in an area, they might think twice about relocating.

“There are occasional reasons why criminals will move into different areas. Of course, people trying to access firearms and drugs will work beyond police force boundaries. But you have to recognise that we are all creatures of habit, so relocating off into a new neighbourhood or new area is actually quite risky and quite difficult for a criminal to operate.”

Mr Thompson said police had made progress in operations to deal with organised gang crime over recent years.

“I wouldn’t minimise that there are still clearly risks around gun and knife crime we want to work harder on,” he said.

“But if you think back over the last 10 years, with the headlines about young people being victims of gun and knife crime, those issues still happen but I think actually there’s a significant success so far.”