THE trial of two drug dealing gangs who peddled their wares on the streets of Basildon have given a snapshot into the town’s seedy underworld.
Four members of the T and D gang were jailed for a total of 32 years last week at Basildon Crown Court.
It comes 12 months after members of the infamous Bush Boys were locked of for 42 years.
The gangs were snared after Essex Police launched Operation Kilo in 2012 after a surge in violent crimes.
These included aggravated burglaries – where suspects break into a house and threaten the occupants with violence or weapons – and robberies.
Det Sgt Ian Jennings, who led the Operation Kilo team told the Echo these incidents often involved drug addicts who owed drugs debts.
However, he said many innocent residents were also caught up in the violence in cases of mistaken identity or when drug pushers went to the wrong house.
He said: “Operation Kilo was set up in 2012 after an increase in violent incidents in the first part of the year.
“It was having a real impact on the local community and many people who had never had any involvement in drugs.
“These gangs were coming from London to sell drugs for purely commercial gain.
“They exploited the poor and the vulnerable. That is why it has been so important for us to stop them.”
The Bush Boys mainly peddled their wares in Laindon with the T and D gang setting up their patch in Pitsea and central Basildon.
Both the T and D gang, also known as the DBO gang, and the Bush Boys operated similar models.
Their sophisticated set-ups saw them buy in crack and heroin to their London bases from underworld importers.
They then ran supplies of drugs up the A13 and A127 in to Basildon where stocks were left with trusted henchmen.
The gang would then seek out vulnerable drug users including street beggers, lone women and single mothers.
They supplied them with free or heavily discounted class A drugs, took over their homes and established them as drug-dealing bases.
The gang would then set up “drug dealing hotlines” and recruit a band of street runners.
Drug users would call the hotline and runners would be dispatched to deal on the streets.
The trial of the Bush Boys heard that deals would take place in car parks, underpasses, bin sheds, hotels and even children’s playgrounds.
The gangs led police on a cat and mouse chase.
At the sentencing of the T and D gang Basildon Crown Court heard the gang was so sophisticated that when one drug dealing base was raided by cops, the group would quickly seek out fresh drug addicts’ homes to take over.
Prosecutors told the court police raids seldom had anything more than a temporary affect on the gangs’ capacity to operate.
Essex Police’s Operation Kilo sawofficers sent deep undercover into Basildon’s seedy underworld.
One officer, known only as “Deano”, posed as a junkie in a bid to scope out both the Bush Boys and the T and D gang’s hierarchies.
He collected hours of evidence that proved crucial in bringing about convictions.
However he almost paid the ultimate price after being rumbled by the Bush Boys’ kingpins Mohammed Hasan, 31, of Dalrymple Road, Brockley, Thomas Symons 19, of Dawson Close, Woolwich and Perry Bohm, 19, Burrage Road Woolwich.
They lured him to a flat in Roodegate, Basildon when they subjected him to a “Reservoir Dogs” style interrogation.
Bohm and Symons held back the officer’s arms while Hassan pelted him with punches.
During the savage interrogation Deano’s secret camera fell out, blowing his cover.
Hassan called out for the henchmen to get knives and while they were out the room Deano made the dramatic decision to jump out the first floor window and run for his life.
The officer’s bravery, which was commended in court by Judge Ian Graham last week, brought the gangs’ enterprise to an end.
More than 100 people were arrested in Essex and London, 42 people have been hauled before the courts and many of the senior players have been put behind bars.
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