Police and council officers set up a mock fashion business to trap Hackney’s most dangerous gangsters and drug dealers.
As a result of the 8-month operation, more than 300 officers rounded up 31 members of the two most notorious gangs, the Pembury Boys and the Balance Boys.
In a series of hearings at Snaresbrook crown court, 29 of them were jailed for a total of 71 years and the other two received suspended sentences.
Operation Chalais was aimed at tackling rising youth violence in Hackney as part of a hard-hitting local response to increased gang activity.
In a unique move, Met officers combined with local authority housing and probation officers to launch the bogus business. As a result, undercover detectives got close enough to some of Hackney’s most violent criminals to gather crucial evidence about drug dealers and gang leaders.
They included heroin dealer Simeon Collins, 25, who pleaded guilty to 13 charges and was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment.
Nikita Brown, 20, of Hackney, was jailed for four-and-a-half years for supplying class A drugs and conspiring to sell weapons.
In the raids carried out last August police also recovered a Sterling submachine gun with ammunition from an address on the Pembury Estate. Detectives likened the operation to the fictional TV series The Wire because it targeted the senior and middle-ranking echelons of the gang, and for its use of covert tactics.
Det Supt Lloyd Gardner of the Trident Gang Crime Command said: “Op Chalais has led to the imprisonment of some of the most dangerous gang members in Hackney borough.”
Supt Robert Jones, acting Hackney borough commander, added: “These sentencing results, the culmination of 18 months’ work, will play an important part in further reducing gang-related crime in Hackney.”
Councillor Sophie Linden, Hackney cabinet member for crime, said: “Our gangs programme has been highlighted as a model of good practice by the Met and we’re seeing real results. We want to build on this and continue to make Hackney a safer place for our communities.”
