Gangster

In the wealthy village of Denham in Buckinghamshire, Lee Hannigan and Harry Hicks-Samuels play the part of successful businessmen really well. Hannigan has a car garage, a mansion with a Ferrari on the drive and a place in Dubai. Hicks-Samuels is only 27 but has a watch business and flat in a luxury development.

But the secrets of where their money really comes from are on their EncroChat phones.

Presenter: Mobeen Azhar

It's April 2020, and the Metropolitan Police are overwhelmed with messages hacked from the EncroChat network.

Buried among the millions of texts and photographs, are the outlines of a murder plot. An anonymous EncroChat user is trying to source a gun and some ammunition for a drive by shooting.

Will the police discover the messages before it’s too late? And will they be willing to risk the secrecy of the entire EncroChat operation by arresting someone on EncroChat evidence alone?

Presenter: Mobeen Azhar

Catching the Kingpins is a BBC Studios Production for BBC Sounds.

Police across Europe prepare for a top-secret operation: the hacking of EncroChat, an encrypted phone network favoured by organised crime groups.

EncroChat’s server has been discovered in northern France. The French police are planning to secretly inject some code into the users’ next software update. If it works, police could be reading the criminals’ messages for weeks.

At the Metropolitan Police in London, DCI Driss Hayoukane is summoned to a confidential meeting where he hears about the plan. He realises this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and decides to put his retirement on hold.

Presenter: Mobeen Azhar

A 6-part true crime podcast documenting the biggest organised crime bust in British policing history. It happens in 2020 when police in France penetrate an encrypted phone network called EncroChat. According to police, the phones were used exclusively by criminals.

- A murder plot unearthed by the Met in a joint operation with South Wales police.

At a time when the Metropolitan Police Service has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons, it’s a story of an extraordinary success: nearly 1000 arrests; over 400 convictions; the seizure of £19 million in cash, three tonnes of Class A and B drugs and 49 guns.

Thanks also to Beena Khetani, Adele Humbert, Hugh Levinson, Ali Rezakhani, Rhiannon Cobb, and Jack Griffith.

Despite the landmark trial of 2004-05 leading to several convictions for the murder of Charlene and Letisha - the gang murders in the city continued. What more could be done to tackle the violence?

In the final episode in the series, we look at how a combination of one man’s brilliant gang mediation and West Midlands police’s Operation Ventara slowly started to turn the tide and begin the process of restoring peace to the city of Birmingham. At the same time as the police were making inroads into dismantling the Burger Bar Boys’ operation in the city, the gang’s ambitions had begun to stretch to neighbouring cities –

We’ll hear from an undercover police officer who was sent into Northampton to join the city’s Burger Bar Boys offshoot there, and how developments in ballistics allowed police to trace the movement of guns like the MAC-10 as they were passed around the country from one gang member to another.

We conclude the series by looking at where things stand now in the city. What became of the convicted gang members, and how the Burger Bar Boys name still echoes around the streets of Handsworth to this day. We will hear how the families who lost loved ones feel as they reflect on the events of the last few decades, and how back in the Burgers’ home territory of Handsworth, there is at last some optimism.

New episodes are released on Fridays. If you’re in the UK, listen to Gangster: The Burger Bar Boys first on BBC Sounds. bbc.in/40W5Chz

Presenter – Livvy Haydock

It’s late 2004 and the buzz of police helicopters and sea of armed police around Leicester Crown Court creates a tense, intimidating atmosphere as one of the biggest murder trials of the decade gets underway. West Midlands police have the men they believe responsible for the deaths of Charlene Ellis and Letisha Shakespeare ready to stand trial for their crimes. But this was not going to be an easy conviction. Detectives had identified 75 people they believed could provide key evidence - yet all of them refused to testify. Then a break came from a man in prison who told prison officers he had seen some of the men in the car involved in the shooting. The problem was - he needed to remain anonymous, and this would involve a legal first.

The trial would go on to last the best part of six months - at that point it was the longest trial in British history and there were several times when it threatened to collapse. Meanwhile, the Burgers were doing everything they could to find out the identity of the secret witness, using extreme violence and intimidation to uncover the name of this faceless man trying to put them behind bars. For the families of Letisha and Sophie and West Midlands police - would they get to witness the killers being put behind bars and finally bring the Burger Bar Boys’ reign of terror to an end?

New episodes are released on Fridays. If you’re in the UK, listen to Gangster: The Burger Bar Boys first on BBC Sounds. bbc.in/40W5Chz

Presenter – Livvy Haydock

As the new century begins, the gang war in Birmingham intensifies. Bloody retaliation follows each shooting and we eventually reach the point where there is no longer any trace of mutual respect between the gangs.

A gang war that began with vintage and adapted firearms had reached the point where submachine guns were the go-to weapon of choice. On January 1 in 2003, a group of innocent teenage girls were getting ready to celebrate the arrival of the new year together at a party in the heart of the Johnson Crew’s territory. Meanwhile, the Burgers were after revenge following the death of member Yohanne Martin and the failed attempt on the life of their ‘Godfather’, and they knew there would be Johnsons at the party.

The tragedy that would unfold was to draw the world’s attention to the city of Birmingham. It was now 4am, the party was in full swing, and the girls had stepped out for air. A car pulled up and a 9mm pistol and MAC-10 machine gun - a weapon capable of firing a thousand rounds a minute - were fired into the crowd. Letisha Shakespeare and Charlene Ellis were killed instantly. Charlene’s sister Sophie was seriously injured and their friend Cheryl also suffered a bullet wound.

In this episode we will hear the powerful and heart-breaking testimony of those closest to the girls and we hear how the girls’ senseless deaths became the turning point in the government’s response to gang violence. With the spotlight on Birmingham, the pressure was mounting on West Midlands police to bring those responsible to justice…

Presenter – Livvy Haydock

With the Yardie threat receding, the Johnson Crew and the Burger Bar Boys vied for dominance in the city. Guns became the weapon of choice, and nowhere felt safe; even the celebratory Handsworth Carnival turned into a scene of extreme gang violence. Territorial battle lines were drawn, with the Johnsons claiming the B6 postcodes of Lozells & Aston, and the Burgers controlling the B21 Handsworth area. It was in the 1990s that the names of key players began to emerge through the smoke of gun barrels. Known by their street names, the powerful and intelligent leader of the Burgers was dubbed 'the Godfather,' while others like S1, Little Dee, Charmer, and Honey Monster struck fear into the hearts of their rivals. Rumors circulated that S1 was so powerful that he was impervious to bullets due to a witchdoctor's protection spell, allowing him to survive multiple gunshot wounds.

At the heart of the Burgers' operation was Raleigh Close in Handsworth, a maze of alleys and connecting ring-roads offering multiple escape routes from their rivals and the West Midlands police. As the millennium came and went, tit-for-tat murders increased, putting a strain on the area's City Hospital, which constantly dealt with new types of trauma injuries and tried to keep the body count down. Crucially, it was the murders during this period that revealed the power of the rival gang leaders. Not only were they capable of cold-blooded murder, often in broad daylight, but they could be seen by multiple witnesses, and still, the public was too terrified to step forward and secure a conviction. As their rivalry escalated into all-out war, the gangs intensified their recruitment efforts, targeting neighbourhood schools to bolster their growing number of foot soldiers and street dealers. For the Burgers and the Johnnies, what would happen next would have global repercussions...

Presenter – Livvy Haydock

The story now takes us from the aftermath of the Handsworth riots in 1985 to the streets of Kingston, Jamaica, where we learn how violence in Birmingham was about to escalate to a whole new level. As the fires were extinguished and the shattered glass was repaired, there was relative calm for the remainder of that decade. The local homeboys of the Handsworth and Lozells districts of Birmingham quietly made their living through low-level crimes such as dealing weed and selling stolen car stereos. At the same time, the younger generation united to combat racism in their respective districts, but a new threat loomed on the horizon. A band of ruthless, fearless gangsters, who shared the same roots as the homeboys, were arriving in the UK, starting in London and then spreading to areas like Handsworth. They were the Yardies, and they aimed to muscle in on the action. Their brutality knew no limits, and with a life expectancy of less than 30, they were in a hurry. To counter this new threat, the homeboys decided to fight fire with fire and began to take up arms.

In this episode, we will take you from the streets of Handsworth to the infamous Tivoli Gardens district of Kingston, Jamaica, as we reveal just how terrifying the Yardies' methods were. We will also explore how the police, through their newly formed Operation Trident, and the homeboys of Birmingham responded. It was during this period that the fledgling Johnson Crew began to emerge. Simultaneously, a more ruthless offshoot of the homeboys was taking shape, and one brutal murder ignited the fuse for the war that would follow, as the Burger Bar Boys first flexed their muscles. With crack cocaine flooding the streets, the sound of gunfire began to fill the city nights...

Presenter – Livvy Haydock

January 2, 2003: The senseless murders of two teenage girls thrust a vicious West Midlands gang into the national spotlight. The girls' deaths mark the culmination of the Burger Bar Boys' long-simmering feud with their rivals, the Johnson Crew - a conflict that threatens to engulf the city of Birmingham in an all-out gang war. But how did this hatred fester and grow, and what were the decades-long origins of this bloodshed in the city? In this podcast, Livvy Haydock will unravel the complicated history of violence, telling a story that traces back to the post-war arrival of the Caribbean Windrush generation and the often-betrayed promises made to them.

In the 1960s, Enoch Powell delivered his incendiary "Rivers of Blood" speech in Birmingham, reflecting the racial tension in the area at the time. Two decades later, in the mid-1980s, the build-up of tension, along with friction between the police and Black and Asian communities, led to the Handworth Riots, resulting in parts of the city burning for two days.

In this opening episode, you will hear from those who lived through these decades, those who lost loved ones in the turmoil, those who fought for peace, and those who have had close encounters with one of the most brutal gangs to have ever existed in the UK. This is the story of the rise and fall of the Burger Bar Boys...

Presenter – Livvy Haydock