Members of a drill music gang who bragged about attacking their rivals in a postcode gang feud were jailed for nearly 15 years. The gang, from Shepherds Bush, in west London, had been waging “tit for tat” gun and knife war with another gang from neighbouring Kensington and Chelsea since the summer of 2016.
Both gangs released numerous drill music videos boasting about stabbing or robbing their rivals.
In several incidents, gang members were stabbed and shot.
Last September, three masked members from Kensington and Chelsea were spotted on a White City estate hunting for rivals to attack.
The Shepherds Bush gang – armed with large knives, swords and wooden sticks – gathered en mass and gave chase.
But as the trio ran away, a 16-year-old was stabbed in the back.
Around two weeks after the stabbing, the Kensington and Chelsea gang uploaded a music video called “Play for the Pagans”.
The lyrics included nicknames for rival gang members, including ‘Jeezy’ for Calvin Johnson, 20, who was jailed for four years.
The lyrics described that if Jeezy had tripped he would have been “dipped” [stabbed].
A second video called “No Hook” uploaded on October 1 included the lyric: “Wit 2 shanks up creep up like luga leave man cut now the 12s all hot.”
The words referred to one of the three males seen on CCTV in a subway with two large knives shortly before the 16-year-old was stabbed.
The “12s all hot” referenced the fact there were lots of police in the W12 area.
An investigation was launched which included officers who know about gangs in their patch.
Calvin Johnson’s brother Fernando, 18, who was sentenced to three years and four months, even updated his Instagram with a new drill video entitled “Statement” while on remand.
Yesterday, eight members of the group including the 16-year-old was sentenced at Isleworth Crown Court on Friday for violent disorder and other offences.
Each member was also handed a Criminal Behaviour Order lasting up to three years banning them from appearing in any video or audio uploaded to the internet that references gangs, guns and knifes.
The order also bans them meeting with each other in public, wearing balaclavas or masks in public, entering the borough of Kensington and Chelsea between certain hours and attending Notting Hill Carnival.