It’s 4am at Holborn Police station on a balmy summer night.
Dozens of officers are being briefed on an operation to bust six addresses where organised criminals are suspected of launching a wave of violent phone snatching and drug dealing on the streets of London.
Spirits are high despite the early start – there’s a sense that Operation Ironhide, as it has been codenamed, will send a warning to criminal gangs that a knock (or more likely bash) at their door is likely at any time.
Metro has been given exclusive access to the operation, which is aimed at disrupting a network allegedly running a drug line across the capital and associated criminal activity including the phone snatching which has become a scourge of the West End.
We set off in a non-descript unmarked police vehicle on a raid on the home of the ‘highest value’ target – the man believed to be the most high ranking.
All six raid addresses needed to be hit at the same time so that the criminals could not warn associates that the long arm of the law was about to scoop them up.
That meant a dramatic countdown before the green light with teams of balaclava-clad territorial support group officers jumping out of vans and filtering along the road in silence.
Metro joined the officers after being told to keep schtum so not to alert the suspect that we were just yards from his front door.
It was now 5am. It still very dark but clammy with pulses racing as the team approached the door on a landing of a flat block in north London.
An order to open up was barked and in unison, the TSG shouted for those inside to comply.
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The surrender is quick, with the door opening before the team needed to wield the Enforcer – a menacing battering ram that could bang down the front door easily.
The raid is an onslaught on the senses, with the silence suddenly broken by the sound of police entering the properties and clearing out the suspects in handcuffs.
Once the rooms have been cleared, the painstaking search for evidence begins.
What sticks out is the ‘bling’ that was carried out in evidence bags: a Rolex, gaudy jewellery and a pair of Gucci trainers. These items all could be useful in a prosecution as these days suspects have to prove that the items were not splashed out on using money from crime.
The raids are later on declared a success, with the police radios and mobiles conveying the good news to the operation coordinators in Holborn.
After a tense time the team – and ourselves – relax as daylight breaks.
Then it’s back to the nick to filter through the evidence – which includes an alarming stash of machetes and knives, not to mention ammunition, before a well earned breakfast.
The operation was part of the Met’s Summer Violence plan to bring down cases of physical harm on the capital’s streets.
Why did the raids take place?
The raids, which took place last month, were at six addresses with more than 50 officers involved in the operation codenamed Ironhide.
It was part of a crackdown on so called ‘high harm’ suspects fuelling violence across the capital often linked to the drugs trade.
In the last year alone 900 guns and more than 1,700 weapons hsve been taken off the streets.
The murder rate has also dropped as the Met targets the groups and individuals bringing violence to communities across London. The figure is down 33 per cent from 2020 when there were 152.
Armed with warrants they searched the properties and have charged four people, three of them teenagers with drugs offences.
Among those detained on a raid attended by Metro was an alleged senior figure running a lucrative drug dealing gang.
At other addresses, swords, machetes and a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire were among the weapons found along with ammunition. Class A drugs were also discovered as well as a stolen Alfa Romeo.
The raids took months to meticulously plan and aimed to smash the gang by going for its ‘Achilles heel’.
In a reference to Greek mythology detectives are targeting perceived weak points in the drug gangs which can disrupt and in some cases destroy the gang’s ability to sell drugs.
Typically the gangs peddle drugs through dedicated phone lines but the police raids can recover evidence which lifts the lid on the criminals and takes them off the streets.
The raids were from Holborn police station where a unit is tasked with tacking violent criminals in the boroughs of Camden and Islington in north London.
Last week the Met said it had arrested 1,300 people at 20 crime hotspots including Walthamstow in east London and Notting Hill in the west as part of a seasonal crackdown on offenders.
The operation took months of planning and is expected to be followed by many others over the coming months.
The officer in charge of operation, Ironhide Detective Inspector Sam Lockstone, told Metro: ‘This was a highly successful operation and sends the message that we are disrupting these high harm criminal gangs.
‘In many cases we know who those involved are and we are determined to take them off the streets.
‘Intelligence gathering is important and the help of the public is vital. People may know these individuals who live on their communities. They are often violent because violence is used by these gangs.
‘We term it the Achilles heel we want to get them at their weak point. It may be for offences other than gang activity but it gives us a warrant and a way in.’
Robbery is down ten per cent year on year and cases of serious violence have plunged by 18.5 per cent, Scotland Yard said.
DI Lockdtone said more operations and raids would follow and that the misery heaped on Londoners by the gangs dealing drugs and robbing phones was a top priority as the drop in violent crime suggests.
He added: ‘We know who they are in many cases and we are coming for them.’
The days are getting colder but on the evidence of these raids the heat is on for the gangs – often armed and dangerous – stalking the capital’s streets and communities.
Who was charged in relation to the raid?
Following the raids a number of charges were brought against suspects.
A man, 37, from north London charged with conspiracy to supply Class A drugs (crack cocaine and heroin).
A 17-year-old boy from Islington was arrested and later charged with conspiracy to supply Class A drugs (crack cocaine and heroin).
A 15 year-old boy from Camden was arrested and later charged with conspiracy to supply Class A drugs (crack cocaine and heroin).
A 15 year-old boy from Islington was arrested and later charged with conspiracy to supply Class A drugs (crack cocaine and heroin) and possession of an offensive weapon in a private place.
The items seized in the raids and bagged up as evidence were:
- A large quantity of suspected Class A drugs (crack cocaine and heroin).
- A large quantity of cash.
- Nine knives/swords/machetes.
- A baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire.
- A knuckleduster.
- A round of ammunition.
- A stolen car found on cloned plates
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
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