'Murder Mile' police uncover cache

Scotland Yard has seized an arsenal of weapons and ammunition believed to be destined for use by Yardie gangsters in an area close to the heart of London's notorious "Murder Mile" around Hackney.

The discovery of the cache of high-powered handguns comes as police announced a "zero-tolerance" approach to gangland criminals and vowed to arrest suspects for minor offences just to get them off the streets.

Armed officers, from the Met's elite Operation Trident - the unit dedicated to combating black-on-black gun crime - swooped on three homes and arrested four men.

They recovered a haul of 20 handguns, including Glock 17 self-loading pistols and Magnums, hidden at the addresses in Hackney. They also seized hundreds of rounds of live ammunition.

One officer said: "These are hi-tech, powerful weapons which would have been used to kill and maim. They could have fallen into the hands of some very ruthless people."

Scotland Yard has been forced to resort to a new tactic of causing "maximum disruption" to the lives of scores of the capital's most dangerous gunmen after a surge in killings last year. Rapid-reaction police squads are targeting Jamaican Yardie and British-born gunmen and have so far arrested more than 60 alleged criminals for a whole range of offences from firearms to parking fines.

One officer said today: "This is intelligenceled policing and we know who these people are. We may not always have enough evidence or luck to catch them in possession of guns, but if we find they've got an invalid tax disc or parking tickets outstanding we're going to prosecute them."

The initiative - similar to how American police arrested legendary gangster Al Capone for tax evasion rather than murder in the Thirties - is achieving significant results and is taking suspected killers off the streets.

The number of firearms killings last year rose to 38, a 52 per cent increase on the previous year. A total of 21 of these were black-on-black murders while there were 135 non-fatal shootings. Police officers are recovering more than 600 guns every year.

Operation Bantam, in Hackney, has struck at the heart of London's gun culture. Detective Chief Inspector Trevor Smith said: "It's a zero-tolerance approach which we know is frustrating and annoying criminals. If they've committed any offence we will get them for it.

"We are trying to get gunmen for serious offences, but if they're driving around without insurance or have been disqualified from driving we will take them to court. If we secure three convictions then the likelihood is they will be sent to prison which will take a gunman off the streets for a few months.

"These people are responsible for very violent offences because there are such huge rewards from controlling drugs markets. They need to know they are not untouchable and cannot have that impression. Many are driving luxury cars and live in expensive flats but have no visible means of income."

Officers from Operation Trident have also been carrying out a series of stops on criminals they suspect carry firearms in the Brixton area. Suspects have been arrested for guns, drugs, possessing stolen credit cards and drink driving.

Detectives say the arrests help give them more intelligence about a criminal's network of contacts and build a picture of how they operate.

During one raid at a luxury Docklands flat police recovered more than £50,000 in cash, but there was no evidence of where the money had come from. Detectives are now working with tax and benefit agencies to follow cash trails and gather information to charge suspects with money laundering.

Officers are deployed with the Yard's SO19 specialist firearms unit as soon as they receive intelligence. Traffic officers and uniform beat patrols are also on the look-out to book suspects.

Lee Jasper, of the Lambeth Trident Independent Advisory Group, commented: "It is vital the police do all they can to confront the gunmen and try to take the guns off our streets. I want people to be afraid to carry a gun because if they do they will be stopped by the police and sent to prison.

"I want people in the community to call police and tell them who is carrying guns. As long as these operations are targeted using good intelligence we must do all we can as a community to support the police, stand up to the men of violence and stop the shootings."