{London}1-04-10 A SHOCK new survey this week showed how Britons feel let down by Labour’s immigration record. According to our YouGov poll, nearly two-thirds of people questioned felt the Government was handling immigration badly (see graphics below).Yesterday we showed you the positive side of immigration – hard-working individuals who contribute to British society.
Yesterday we showed you the positive side of immigration – hard-working individuals who contribute to British society.
Today, we look at the other side of the story – those who have brought violence and crime to the streets of the UK. IN crisp spring sunshine, on a bustling north London street and in full view of young mums pushing prams, we are brazenly handed four rocks of class-A drugs by two Somali gangsters.
They banter and joke with our undercover reporter who is posing as a druggie looking for a fix. They are relaxed and *****y in what they consider to be their territory.
King’s Cross
In the shadow of the British Library – a magnet for tourists – Somali gangs are plying their trade, selling what they call “Eurodrugs” to the students and holidaymakers who flood off the Eurostar link with the continent at King’s Cross.
As well as selling ecstasy and cannabis to the youngsters looking to “spice up” their visit to the capital, they are also feeding the crippling addiction of thousands with harder drugs.
Misery
In a transaction that took less than five minutes, we were sold four small bundles wrapped in cling film – two of crack cocaine and two of heroin. They cost £10 each – a total of £40.
An independent Home Office-approved laboratory has confirmed the drugs to be of high purity, the type of acutely addictive substance that is unleashing misery on the streets of Broken Britain.
Somali gangs are major players in the trade of illegal drugs in Britain’s big cities and have become ruthless money-making outfits, kicking out established gangs by being prepared to resort to the most extreme violence.
They represent another side of immigration – an influx importing the hard mentality of the war zone they left behind and using it to take advantage of our liberal Western society.
To them, Britain’s streets are a soft, ripe-for-the-plucking goldmine of illegal cash.
Official figures show 101,000 Somalis here but the true number is believed to be more like 250,000. Many of them are here illegally.
We spoke to two members of London’s biggest Somali outfit – The Woolwich Boys – who explained why they now dominate the underworld.
The gang members – nothing to do with the Somalis who sold us drugs – refused to reveal their identity. They are known simply as Chad, 21 and Mo, 18.
We came over here when we were ten years old,” says Chad.
“People in the UK have no idea what it was like growing up there.
“If my parents hadn’t made a run for it I wouldn’t be alive.
“Gangs here aren’t tough, we’re tough. We run things now, no one can f*** with us.”
As well as the trade in drugs, Somali gangs have carved themselves a niche as hit men, carrying out executions for cash.
“If you wanted someone stabbed or maimed it will cost you £500,” Mo growls chillingly. “Having someone killed would cost more, but it would depend on the situation.
“Guns, knives – we use them all.”
The pair showed us some of the weapons they carry on their south London housing estate – heavy-duty meat cleavers.
Mo also supplied us with a picture of himself with an AK47 machine gun and offered to get us a 9mm pistol delivered.
“These sort of weapons are easy to come by if you know the right Somalis,” he says.
“An AK47 isn’t the sort of thing you’ll see on the street but it would be used in a hit-job. What you’ve got to understand is in Somalia life is cheap.
“We came here with nothing but now dress in the best trainers, drive nice cars, the lot. And there’s f*** all the government do about it.
“A lot of us aren’t even here legally. I’m above board but loads of my mates and family aren’t here legally.”
The problem of Somali youth violence has been building for some time.
Violent
In 2002, Metropolitan Police spokesman Abdal Ullah, who specialises in youth crime, said of the gangs: “These youths come from a violent place where many have seen killings, so if someone here is trying to take advantage, they are capable of fighting back.
“When you are a teenager, everyone is looking for an identity and being a member of a gang is just one way. Violence among Somali youths is a growing problem.”
In 2005 WPC Sharon Beshenivsky was gunned down by two Somali brothers fleeing a robbery in Bradford, West Yorkshire.
Sharon, who had only been serving as a police officer for nine months, died in the street as they sped away in a car.
And in January 2006, 18-year-old Mahir Osman died after being set upon by a gang of up to 40 Somali youths near Camden tube station.
In 2007, 13 youths and men – including the son of the former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin – were convicted at the Old Bailey of taking part in the attack.
LONDON SOMALI GANGS
In London, Somali gangs are far from small-time street dealers. They are highly motivated, organised and driven by a powerful lust for cash.
Chad told us: “We use a system to sell our drugs which means we all make good money and don’t need to compete with each other.
“There is one mobile phone SIM card which all the customers have the number of. We’re talking thousands of punters, ya get me? Somalis never work under the influence, we don’t touch the class A. But we sell it by the boatload. The SIM card will be held in shifts.
“One group, say from Woolwich, will have the card for eight hours, answering the calls and making drop-offs – smack, crack, whatever.
“Then they hand the card over to another branch of the gang, say in Plumstead, who will do the work for the next eight hours.
Infiltrated
“It’s a shift system, with everyone keeping the money they make on their shift. That’s how we’ve been able to grow bigger than any of the gangs already here – we’re way more organised.
“That, and the fact we’ll put a bullet in your skull if you try to f*** with any of us.
“We stick together speaking the same language and working with the same people. We can’t be infiltrated.”
Somali gangs operate using safety in numbers, driven over from Africa in vast numbers, all with pound signs in their eyes.
The Woolwich Boys alone have about 200 members, covering only a small part of south London.
It’s the same story in Camden, the north London borough where we bought drugs on the street, and in east London areas such as Hackney and Tower Hamlets.
In Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds they are also major players. A number of high-profile gangland killings have been carried out by Somali gangs in Liverpool.
“We have numbers now, because so many of us have been allowed into the UK,” says Mo.
“We’ve all come over here with one thing on our mind – money. And we don’t care how we get it. The government don’t stand a chance.
“How do you scare a Somali from coming over and committing crime with the threat of jail, when the alternative is stay there and end up dead?
“Besides, it’s too late. The Somalis are here to stay, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.”
Our evidence is available to the police.
n.francis@the-sun.co.uk
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