The REAL Gangs of London mapped: Terrifying actuality of the warring mobs controlling the capital’s legal underworld as Sky’s ultra-violent TV hit returns for a 3rd collection
Ultra-violent Sky smash hit Gangs of London is back – promising stomach-churning thrills and plenty of pints of blood spilled on the streets of the capital.
Fans are in for a treat as former undercover police officer Elliott Carter has seemingly joined those he was once trying to stop, taking over the role of King of London as he rules the city with the Dumani crime family.
But a spiked batch of cocaine sparks a new war for dominance across London – and the violence that follows isn’t far-removed from the reality.
The series was originally conceived as a spin-off of a PlayStation game Gangs of London – itself an offshoot of PlayStation 2 game The Getaway, which cast players as a suited criminal in a virtual recreation of the capital.
Writers for the game had taken inspiration from East End gangsters and the Yardie and Triad violence of the 90s that scarred the capital – but when it came to adapting the series for the 2020s showrunners had to make some updates.
Gone are the warring British, Jamaican and Chinese gangsters and scraps over Soho strip clubs.
Instead, there are Pakistani, Albanian, Algerian, Georgian and Nigerian gangs battling over drugs – all inspired by real gangs terrorising London’s boroughs with horrific violence.
Ex-East End mobster Stephen Gillen, who consulted on the show, is thought to be one of the inspirations for Finn Wallace, the patriarchal figure whose death sets Gangs of London’s plot in motion at the very start.
But while the show’s stylish ultraviolence has won it critical praise and millions of viewers, the reality among the hundreds of gangs thought to operate in the capital is far less alluring – and altogether more terrifying.
Sky’s hugely popular – and ludicrously violent – series Gangs of London is back – but the reality of the postcode wars that inspired the series is far less alluring than the show
However, the real gangs of London are altogether more violent and terrifying – including drill rap gangs fighting for supremacy across the capital
The Metropolitan Police estimated in 2018 there were 231 active organised crime gangs in the city, of which 82 were linked to foreign criminals and 22 based outside the UK, according to a Mayor of London office response.
By 2022, per a Met Police freedom of information response, that number had risen to 432. The National Crime Agency estimates some £90 billion of dirty money is funnelled through the city every year – and has said it is likely to be much more.
There were 496 individuals on the force’s controversial Gang Violence Matrix of named known gangsters as of the start of 2023 – though this metric was later dropped amid allegations it was racially discriminatory.
While the show explores the powerful underbelly of the city in a haze of stylistic ultra-violence, the reality of many real London gangs is altogether more sinister.
Drill wars: The rapping drug-runners and hitmen
London’s thuggish drill scene is infamous – and sees criminals firing off threats in the form of violent diss raps that then spill out into stabbings and shootings.
Many of these gangs derive their names from their local postcodes, or, in the case of Block 124 in Lewisham, the local bus which serves Catford and Eltham.
Brixton’s 67 gang has been connected with county lines operations, running heroin and crack cocaine in south-east England, as well as numerous murders in the city.
But it was also a prolific rap group, landing a Best Newcomer nod at the MOBOs in 2016. But many of its members stand little chance of making it big in music after winding up in prison – or dead.
A top 67 member, Chris Kaba – known as Madix or Mad Itch – was shot dead by police in Streatham Hill in 2022, days after Kaba shot a man in the legs in Hackney.
Gangs of London stars Sope Dirisu as Elliott Carter, an undercover police officer turned crime lord (pictured)
The series was based on a series of PlayStation games from the 2000s called The Getaway – a fictionalised account of gang wards between East End, Yardie and Triad thugs in London
Drill rapper Chris Kaba, who was shot dead by police days after he had shot rival gangster Brandon Malutshi
Kaba (pictured) is seen running with the gun in Hackney as he chased down Brandon Malutshi
Armed police shot Kaba in Streatham Hill, London as he tried to escape from officers who realised the car he was in had been linked to previous shootings
Kacey Boothe, 25, was shot and killed as he left a first birthday party at a community centre in Walthamstow
Kammar Henry-Richards, who shot Kacey seven times, released this tasteless music video was released just days after the fatal shooting in north-east London in August 2022
He had smuggled a handgun into a nightclub and opened fire on Brandon Malutshi, associated with the rival 17 gang, before chasing him outside and shooting him in the leg.
At the time of his death, Kaba was driving an Audi SUV linked to a Brixton shooting a day earlier. It had also been used as a getaway car in the Hackney shooting.
His killing led to the 67s issuing a £10,000 reward for anyone who could find and kill the officer who pulled the trigger – who was later cleared of murder – by way of retribution.
The innocents caught in the crossfire of rap gang postcode wars
Drill gangs’ violent postcode wars also have terrifying, heartbreaking consequences for innocent everyday Londoners.
Lianna Gordon, 42, was shot on her doorstep in Hackney in December 2023 by teenage gunman Joshua Alexander, who ran with the area’s Pembury Gang.
He shot her in the head through her front door as she tried to protect her children from gang violence. Alexander had shot a 17-year-old boy and a 21-year-old man in the street during the same attack.
Sickeningly, he sought to glorify his crimes through rap, writing lyrics about the killing in his prison cell after he was arrested.
Judge David Aubrey KC told the killer: ‘The background to your case is sadly all too familiar.
‘It is one of turf wars, territory, violence between rival groups and gangs of youths and consequential tragedy and grief.’
Alexander had been involved in a brutal shooting at Hackney Central railway station months before – as a trio shot at and stabbed Hakim Malone in March 2023 as he stood in a lift at the platform.
Teen gunman Joshua Alexander, who was jailed for life after murdering mother Lianne Gordon during a hit on rival gangsters
Lianne Gordon died after she was shot in the head through her own front door in Hackney in 2023
Police are pictured at the scene of the shooting. Two others were also shot but survived
Alexander had acted as a spotter in an earlier hit at Hackney Central railway station (pictured, two of those involved in the hit)
The teen gunman had acted as a spotter, flagging Malone’s presence at the station to other gang members, who moved in with a knife, a handgun and a machete.
Malone tried to use a terrified 64-year-old as a human shield. Remarkably, she escaped uninjured.
Hanzell Greenaway, Jaheim Thomas, Elisandro Pinto Alves – all 18 – and 19-year-old Marvin Edokpolo were found guilty of attempted murder.
The twisted gangster who mocked his victim after the murder – and from behind bars
In January this year, Kammar Henry-Richards was jailed for life after murdering a gang rival outside a baby’s birthday party – before bragging about it in a twisted music video under the name Kay-O.
A member of the 98s – a gang that derives its name from the E9 and E8 postcodes – he shot 25-year-old Kacey Boothe seven times as he sat in a car outside Peterhouse Community Centre in Walthamstow, north-east London, in August 2022.
He then recorded a song called Laughing Stock celebrating the killing. The sick bragging would actually help to seal his conviction – after he revealed the same gun had been used to shoot Kacey’s older brother Kyle.
The lyrics read: ‘Big Boothe and Little got hit, same Sig (Sauer, a brand of handgun), that’s a sour family.
‘Both got slapped at functions, neck and head, handguns come handy.’
Prosecutor Anthony Ochard KC said: ‘The track contained specific information about the circumstances in which Kacey Boothe had been killed that were not in the public domain.’
Henry-Richards has been unrepentant – posting a video featuring his mugshot from behind bars after he was jailed. YouTube has handed him a lifetime ban.
The decades-old Turkish war that destroyed a life
A gang shooting in Dalston, north London left a nine-year-old girl fighting for her life last May after she was caught in the crossfire of one of the latest in a string of Turkish gang hits.
The Tottenham Turks and the Hackney Bombacilars (Turkish for ‘bombers’) have been warring for more than 20 years over the UK’s heroin trade.
The Bombacilar mob, run by the Kurdish Baybasin brothers, has been importing heroin from Afghanistan and processing it in Turkey before shipping it to Britain.
A girl shot at Evin restaurant in Kingsland High Street in Dalston last May was caught in the crossfire of a Turkish gang war
Emergency services on the scene in Dalston, east London, after the shooting
Abdullah Baybasin (pictured) is the current leader of the Hackney Bombacilar gang
Forensic officers pictured outside Evin restaurant. The girl has only left hospital and may never move or talk again
One of the brothers, Abdullah, was reportedly working as a British intelligence informant allowing him and his family to move to the UK – following which they began plying their trade.
Both gangs have engaged in tit-for-tat violence as they fight to claim North London for themselves – with the groups linked to at least 20 murders, a series of kidnappings and other acts of violence.
And last May, tragedy struck Dalston as a a Tottenham mob gunman riding a stolen motorbike fired at a Turkish restaurant where three rivals were sat – and one of the bullets struck the youngster in the head.
She has only now left hospital and may never walk or speak again, The Sun reported. The real target of the shooting, Beytullah Gunduz, had left minutes earlier – and was reported to have wished he had been there to take the bullet.
‘We can be criminals but this girl wasn’t, she didn’t do anything wrong. It is killing me inside,’ he was reported by The Times to have said.
Javon Reily, 32, is facing trial charged with four counts of attempted murder – but is not believed to be the gunman.
That is thought to be Izzet Eren, who was shot to death outside a cafe in Moldova months later in what is thought to be retaliation for the Dalston attack.
Kemal Armagan, believed to be a senior figure in the Hackney Bombacilar, is thought to have pulled the trigger – and was reportedly arrested earlier this month in Turkey.
Three men – aged 36, 35 and 28 – were also arrested last month for conspiracy to murder. They were released on bail pending further investigation.
The shooting is thought to be the latest salvo in a turf war between two Turkish gangs: the Tottenham Turks and the Hackney Bombacilar (‘bombers’ in Turkish), a scrap that has waged for more than two decades.
Armagan is also wanted for the murder of shopkeeper Ahmet Paytak, who was shot dead in Holloway, north London in March 2009 after Paytak and his son were hit by a hail of bullets in a case of mistaken identity.
Gangs of London is, at its heart, entertainment – but the real strifes of gangs horrify Londoners on a daily basis.
Executive producer Thomas Benski told the Standard in 2022: ‘For us the rule was fantasy. We never wanted it to feel we were filming the reality.’
