Gang wants London drug trade—paper

Press, 24 July 1986, Page 37

Gang wants London drug trade —paper

By

ROBIN CHARTERIS

in London

A drugs war is being waged in south London where a Caribbean gang is attempting to hijack the booming cocaine market, according to a London newspaper.

Six shootings, including two murders, have been ordered in the last eight weeks, the "Standard” says.

It says the “Yardies,” an underworld gang which grew out of political turmoil in Jamaica in the late 19705, is "wiping out” and replacing existing cocaine suppliers with its own men.

Some smaller drugs dealers are said to be turning themselves in to seek protection from the police. Others are standing their ground and being shot. “It's getting like the wild west down here,” said a drugs squad detective. “Some of these Yardies are armed with automatic weapons and seem to enjoy using them,” he said.

He claimed the gang was emulating Cuban mobsters in Miami who had broken the mafia stranglehold on cocaine distribution by total ruthlessness.

The latest killing occurred when a man got out of a Mercedes, walked up to another man in the doorway of a Brixton pub and shot him through the head at point blank range with a sawn-off shotgun.

The other murder victim was a nightclub doorman who had refused entrance to gang members allegedly wanting to enter the club and shoot their real victim. Observers claimed the Yardies gang had moved into Notting Hill and Hackney and was now trying to take over troubled Brixton, said the “Standard.” It claimed the gang’s notoriety began in Kingston, Jamaica, a decade ago when it was known to be active in protection, drugs and criminal violence. Later, the gang moved to New York and

then Britain, some members posing a reggae musicians to gain entry. The drug warfare comes at a time when police in Brixton are stretched. Fourteen murders are unsolved in the area alone and robberies occur at the rate of 25 a day.

The police have problems questioning suspects in the predominantly black area. “Within two minutes of talking to your man you are surrounded by a crowd of up to 100 hostile youngsters,” said one Brixton policeman, according to the “Standard.”

Cocaine from Columbia is said to be plentiful in Britain at present. Street prices have halved to £5O ($143) a gramme in the last two years. The “Standard” suggested that price lowering was a ploy by the Colombian suppliers, acting with the Yardies gang, to create a network of addicts as ready-made customers. They could then raise the price at will.