The moment a terrified woman called 999 sobbing ‘they are shooting…please, I have children in the house,’ has been captured after a thug is caught on camera firing a shotgun at her front door
A gunman is filmed firing into the front door of a terrified family as a woman calls 999 for help and sobs: “Please, I have children in the house.”
The footage was captured on a Ring doorbell in Luton and formed part of the UK’s biggest-ever organised crime probe after police hacked into an encrypted phone network used by gangsters. A masked man can be seen sneaking up the drive before he produced a double-barrelled shotgun from a rucksack and fired at the front door.
One of the victims told a police call handler in broken English: “Someone shooting on my door, they are shooting…seven people in the house…children.” She can then be heard telling the youngsters to stay away from the door as police send armed officers to the scene.
The clip features in the latest episode of 24 Hours in Police Custody, called “The Secret Network”, which follows Bedfordshire Police’s investigations into the underworld “command and control platform”. It was based on a treasure trove of evidence that came after French and Dutch law enforcement agents managed to hack the secretive EncroChat communications system for two months in 2020.
The film, due to air on Tuesday, follows detectives as they covertly follow the gangsters talking about buying and selling guns and drugs. In one investigation, dealer Ethan Mitchell was accused of supplying the weapon used in the attack on the house after.
He replied to another man who had asked if he had a “piece”: “Gave mine to a mate the other day” and added “mines a shotty”. Mitchell, 28, of no fixed address, who went by the alias “frontrunner” on the platform, was later cleared over supplying the gun but jailed for nine years for possession with intent to supply MDMA, cocaine and possession of criminal property.
He is shown taking police on a high-speed chase, mounting a kerb on a busy residential street, before being caught after a keen eyed detective spotted him walking down the street. A search of his van found cocaine, ecstasy and around £40,000 of cash in a safe.
Mitchell was jailed as part of Operation Costello, Bedfordshire Police’s response to the national Operation Venetic probe into the Encrochat system.
The crooks did not use their real identities on the network and officers had to prove their code names, or handles, were them. Det Supt Julie Henderson told the programme: “These people are just like ghosts.”
Her team were able to identify Kamran Bashir, 37, Blazej Holub, 38, and Ibraz Iqbal, 26, by their user names as they sold large amounts of drugs on the phones.
In July 2020, police arrested Bashir at work and found two Encrochat devices and half a kilogram of cocaine in his staff locker. When officers searched his car and home address, they discovered approximately £130,000 of cash.
Iqbal was buying drugs and using nearby business premises as a base for the huge quantities of cocaine to be delivered to. He was arrested on the same day as Bashir and approximately £20,000 of cash was seized from the business premises.Through the Encrochat messages, Holub was identified as the supplier.
He was caught on camera being arrested as he returned from Poland to Luton Airport. When searched, he was found to be in possession of a Rolex watch, cash, bank cards, an iPad and a number of phones, including an encrypted device. Bashir, 37, and Holub, 38, were each jailed for 16 years and three months. Iqbal, 36, was handed a sentence of 12 years and seven months.
More than 200 gangland murder plots were foiled after the global secret phone network was smashed. Previously “untouchable” kingpins and bent officers were among hundreds of suspects held as a result of the underworld network being infiltrated by law enforcement.
Officers seized £54million in illegal cash along with two tons of drugs and scores of firearms, including machine guns.
One of the longest jail terms was given to £27m drugs boss Jordan Talbot who texted “EncroChat is f***ed the plod cracked them”. Using the handle “Littlenev”, he and his three accomplices exchanged 7,000 messages in 10 weeks. Talbot, of Formby, Merseyside, was jailed in August for 21 years and nine months.
Gary Mitchell, of Wallasey, Merseyside, was jailed for 15 years after he posted a photo of cannabis and police identified his fingerprints from images. Carl Stewart, of Vauxhall, Liverpool, was also identified from his fingerprints after sharing a photo of his favourite cheese.
Businessman Steven Strachan, of the Wirral, was secretly a drug dealer known as “fastsilver”, who was jailed for six years after showing his garden.
24 Hours in Police Custody, “The Secret Network” Channel 4 Tuesday at 9pm
