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The Asian gangs present in London are established in Southall (West London) and around Tower Hamlets and Newham, East London and Kings Cross (WC1/NW1). In the late 1970’s vigilante gangs of second generation Asians took to the streets to help protect the Asian communities from white racist groups such as the National Front in East London. The Asian gangs formed to protect their community and local businesses. Asian gangs in the East End are territorial and mark their boundaries with graffiti. The gangs of the Tower Hamlets/Kings Cross are predominantly Bengali whilst those of the West End and Newham are mostly Indian and Pakistani.
For Asian Street Gangs see individual pages "Camden & Islington" - "Newham" - "Tower Hamlets"
See below for Tamil Groups
Tamil Gangs in London's Sri Lankan Communities
Gun crime is beginning to spread within the Tamil, Sikh, Indian, Pakistani and Benglai communites and the murder rate has tripled over the past decade (2003). There were over 40 murders involving south Asians and 228 kidnappings in 2003.
It was in 2003 that Scotland Yard created a specialist squad (The Tamil Taskforce) to deal solely with the rising gangland violence in Sri Lankan Tamil communities following 13 gang-related murders centred round the Tamil communities of Ilford, Walthamstow, Newham and Wembley.
The rise in violence among the Tamil communities first gained serious concern in the late 1990’s following a spate of stabbings and street fights with rival groups across London. The first homicide to be given media attention, that was attributed to the Tamil gangs, was in 2002 when a young Tamil was murdered and left to burn in Roe Green Park, Kingsbury, North West London.
He was killed amid a dispute reportedly involving local "Tamil gangs" in the area. Around the same time a killing in Merton brought more attention to Tamil violence and police concluded that the attacks were part of longstanding vendettas originating from Sri Lanka, although the reality was probably less complex than this. The police/media at the time seemed to be under the assumption that all violence was Tamil vs Tamil and didnt really consider the different groups that had been in conflict back in Sri Lanka.
It would seem much of London’s Sri Lankan communities were affected as Croydon, with 3,000 Tamils, also in 2002 voiced concern over violence in the community and charged 3 Tamils with attempted murder in a matter of two months.
In 2003 the “Snake Gang” shot a young man dead in a feud after trying to assassinate a relative. He was shot dead in his home and one of the killers also had tried to execute his father in law. The gang hours before the murder took place also attempted to kill the deceased’s brother in law in a drive by shooting. The murder took place at Lyon Park Avenue, Wembley.
Following this another two murders in 2003 were commited. A 23 year old Sri Lankan was attacked in Wembley and one hour later an 18 year old Sri Lankan was involved in a dispute between rival gangs in Ilford. Both men died from their injuries in hospital. The following disputes were between rival groups in Wembley and Ilford.
The violent feuding between Sri Lankan gangs has built steadily since 2000 and some disputes are still seen by police to involve familial or intervillage disputes originating from Sri Lanka although many of the motivations are typical of violent offences - minor slights. London is home to around 100,000 Tamil’s. The areas most affected are in East Ham, Ilford, Tooting, Wembley and to a lesser extent Harrow and Walthamstow.
Early in 2004 a teenager was attacked by a Tamil gang (Ari Ala Gang) brandishing samurai swords, hammers and axes, the 18 year old youth died in his car at traffic lights in Wembley. Following a number of murders the newly formed Tamil Taskforce acting on recent work arrested 24 suspects in attempts to curb the violence. And Scotland Yard arressted 13 as 500 officers searched homes in Newham, Waltham Forest, Redbridge, Harrow, Brent and Croydon.
Police seized a pistol, ammunition, swords, axes, baseball bats and pickaxe handles. In Newham credit card cloning equipment was found and five men were arrested on suspicion of deception. Police seized 69 credit cards and a £30,000 Mercedes in Waltham Forest.
While attempts by police to curb Tamil gang violence have been made the knowledge on the Tamil community is limited and disruption of the gangs is far from complete. The vast majority of the group violence was not as complex and ingrained with issues back in Sri Lanka as the police/media had suggested and links with LTTE often quoted were misleading in the past. The violence discussed here is hardly different from other group disputes involving white, black or other Asian youths.
It is also disputed that many of the gang names quoted by police/media for Tamil or Sri Lankan gangs were not really in use by the identified groups. For example, Jaffna, Valveddithurai (VVT), Ariyala were some of many gang names identified by police that were simply the names of Sri Lankan settlements where the individuals involved came from, its possible some of the gang names were given to these groups by the police rather than by the groups themselves.
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London's Largest Asian Communities (2001 Census)
The map shows areas with the highest concentration of Asian's (Pakistani, Indian, Sri Lankan, Bengali). The red shade indicates areas where Asian's account for between 42% and 90% of the population and the orange areas 21% to 42% of the population. The black circles indicate the location of Asian gangs and Asian gang areas.
There are few inner city areas, with the exception of Tower Hamlets, that have large Asian populations, much of the settlements are in outer London. Tower Hamlets and Kings Cross are predominantly occupied by Bengali's (Drummond Street, Brick Lane, Stepney etc..) whereas areas such as Tooting, Croydon, Wembley and Ilford are more likely to be Sri Lankan and Indian. Southall, Hounslow and Hillingdon are predominantly Indian areas. Waltham Forest and Newham have predominantly Pakistani and Sri Lankan Asian's.
Tower Hamlets is home to the most Asian street gangs followed by Newham and then Brent.
