Yard prevents 17 gangland killings

Scotland Yard has stopped gunmen from carrying out 17 gangland killings in London so far this year, a senior detective reveals today.

Police say they are increasingly intercepting armed criminals moments before they plan to carry out murders.

Now the Yard has launched a specialist unit to tackle drug gangsters who they say are becoming so confident that they are increasingly carrying out their own killings.

Det Chief Supt John Coles, the head of the Yard's Serious and Organised Crime Group, said his officers had intercepted 11 men armed with loaded handguns just as they were about to commit a murder on the streets of London. They had warned six more men that they were targets of a death plot.

He said: "The explosion of gun crime is linked to the drug crime problem and we have started to identify people engaged in drug activity who have fallen out with other criminals who are increasingly prepared to carry out shootings. These are new criminal groups that are developing who are so arrogant and confident that they are doing these killings themselves."

The gangs are increasingly people from ethnic backgrounds who have imported their own values from countries where war is commonplace and life is cheap.

They range from black Yardie-style gangs to Asian gangs or criminals from Eastern European countries such as Albania or Kosovo.

Traditionally, organised criminals in Britain have ordered contract killings to be carried out on rivals using third-party gunmen.

Detectives with support from the Yard's SO19 specialist firearms unit target the gunmen, following them often until moments before they are about to commit the killing.

In one case, a gunman was ambushed by armed officers 100 yards from his target.