Two schoolboy brothers aged 14 and 15 were among suspects arrested yesterday on suspicion of dealing Class A drugs, including crack cocaine and heroin.
The pair are alleged to be prominent gang members who peddled substances on the streets of a Westminster council estate plagued by violence and organised thugs.
They were among more than 20 people targeted in dawn raids on the Churchill Gardens estate in Pimlico. Two addresses raided were only yards away from the location of last week’s Chelsea Flower Show.
About 200 officers swooped on homes of suspected members of a gang called the Church Town Militants. Police said the action followed pleas from residents for action against gang-related violence and drug dealing on the estate where teenager Hani Hicham El Kheir was hacked to death with swords and a meat cleaver in January last year.
The two arrested boys were described as active members of the gang who allegedly dealt Class A drugs on the streets. They are said to live “chaotic lifestyles”, only occasionally attending school, said one detective.
The 14-year-old, who lives with his grandmother, is on bail for grievous bodily harm and is “well known” to police and social services. The pair are said to come from a dysfunctional family and have been subject to a number of parenting orders with limited success.
Officers, including members of the Territorial Support Group, raided 22 addresses in a co-ordinated action at about 6.15am.
Police battered down the door of one suspected dealer. As officers burst into the second-floor flat screaming “Police”, bags of cannabis and loose cash were thrown out of the window and into the bushes below.
A 19-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of drugs possession with intent to supply. A total of 19 people, mostly aged between 14 and 25 were arrested yesterday morning.
One woman in her early fifties was also arrested for possession of drugs. Police said the action was the arrest phase of a five-month operation in which officers acted on tip-offs from people around two Pimlico estates, Churchill Gardens and Warwick Estate.
Following an extensive intelligence-led investigation, police say it became clear there was a gang-run open drugs market in parts of Westminster, with dealing in cannabis, heroin, crack cocaine and MDMA.
Officers have also been investigating a spate of stabbings in the area during recent months.
Acting detective chief inspector Philip Grindell of Westminster Police said: “Yesterday’s series of warrants and arrests are as a direct result of concerns we have had from residents about the level of drug-dealing and gang activity on the estate.”