Oliver Weetch concludes five handed firearms and drugs and case: Operation Scartile.
The five defendants in this case were tried over the course of three weeks in July of this year at Woolwich Crown Court on an eighteen-count indictment arising from a specialist police operation in Thamesmead during which two prohibited working firearms with compatible ammunition and Class A and B drugs worth over £100,000 were seized on the same day from a shed in the rear garden of an address. The investigation also led to the identification of another address a few doors away which was also being used by the group. The case featured extensive surveillance footage, phone material, DNA and ballistics evidence.
No defendants were found in physical possession of the firearms, drugs and cash found inside the shed, however the prosecution’s case was that all defendants were involved in a conspiracy to supply the drugs inside it and in joint possession of the firearms, ammunition and cash within it as part of a group who could draw on its contents as and when required.
Four of the five defendants were convicted of all counts they faced at trial and received sentences totalling 40 years imprisonment when recently sentenced.
