Murderous and murky world of city gun gangs

Respect, revenge and revenue – the three vicious motivations that fuel the murky underworld of gang-related activity across Wolverhampton.

For the large part, crimes carried out by members of the city's four most prominent crews go unnoticed to members of the public.

But in recent weeks, a series of high-profile shootings have thrust the issue of gangs into the limelight.

Today, the Express & Star can reveal that Wolverhampton is now dogged by four main gangs – the Park Village Crew, Pendeford Crew, Firetown Gang and the Reans Crew.

While a defined membership base of these crews does not exist, police believe there are hundreds of young men who have different levels of involvement.

What is known is that these gangs make their money by selling class A drugs including cocaine and heroin, and that they will commit frightening levels of violence to get what they want.

On eight occasions in the last two months, shots have been fired in the Whitmore Reans, Park Village, Low Hill, Heath Town, Penn Fields and Pendeford areas. Seven were as a result of disputes between gangs.

The spate of gang-related shootings started at the Bagot Arms in Newhampton Road West, Whitmore Reans, on February 10 when, during a wake, gunshots were fired.

Sources have told the Express & Star that the wake was connected to a gang from another area.

Things came to a head on February 16, when within 13 hours a man was shot in the leg in Glaisdale Gardens, Whitmore Reans, and houses were fired at in Monsal Avenue, Park Village, and Showell Road, Low Hill.

On March 14, a house in Owen Road, Penn Fields, was shot at and the following day, a 28-year-old was shot in the chest in Inkerman Street, Heath Town.

Most recently, a group of men painting fences in Chetton Green, Fordhouses, were shot at in the middle of the afternoon on April 20.

The deep-seated issue of gang activity in Wolverhampton came to prominence in 2006 following a spate of shootings. More recently last year, former cage fighter Scott

Benjamin, leader of the Pendeford Crew, was jailed for six years after police found a loaded gun he had stashed under his girlfriend's bed.

The 23-year-old, who went by the street name Shredder, admitted possession of the firearm and ammunition modified to let it explode on impact, on the basis that he was looking after it for a criminal associate who he refused to name.

Benjamin, of Ploughmans Walk, Pendeford, was a close friend Marlon Morris, 21, who was stabbed to death by rival gang member Jamie Price, son of dance music star Goldie, in 2008.

Benjamin was alleged to have injured a member of Price's Firetown Gang before the murder. Price, 24, was jailed for a minimum of 21 years for the killing. The sentence was seen as a major crack in the wall of silence that shielded gang members from justice.

Just last month, father-of-two Nathan Hamilton – a member of the notorious Park Village Crew – was sentenced to 12 years in prison for manslaughter. Mr Justice MacDuff said the evidence had shown he and five others had gathered in victim Raheem Hines-Thomas' bedroom to plan a revenge attack against the rival Firetown Gang, who had beaten up Hamilton's younger brother Parisse earlier that day.

What has become clear over the years since is that the crews are continually recruiting new members with the promise of protection and easy cash through drugs.

Impressionable youngsters are drawn in with the belief that they will be looked after, with some youths wearing a particular colour that represents their gang.

Other gang members post videos and images of themselves brandishing firearms and weapons on the internet, often disguising their faces to avoid being identified.

Ultimately, what youths are being drawn into is a murky world of serious crime and tensions between gangs.

Supt Mark Payne, from Wolverhampton Police, has worked in the city for 10 years. He said: "Tensions between the gangs can be about a number of things. It can be about respect, turf, and territory. It can be about drugs. It can sometimes be over the sort of things that people fall out about all the time, such as women."

Weapons that have been fired in Wolverhampton have been found to have been used in other parts of the Midlands and UK, suggesting links between groups.

Supt Payne said: "There is an illegal trade in firearms in the UK and gangs are able to access firearms.

"There are not lots of guns available to these groups. Guns are a commodity and if someone has a gun and someone else wants one, it doesn't matter where they're from. They wouldn't necessarily need to have strong gang links to obtain them."

Historically, police are met with a wall of silence when speaking to gang members.

But officers are making strides with links they are able to forge with the community, meaning they get a clear picture of why incidents happen.

Supt Payne said:"Gangs don't exist in isolation. Communities speak to us so we do have a good feel for what's going on."

Special report by Shaun Jepson