Men from Newham and Bow among seven jailed in organised crime crackdown

Newham man Daniel Ngoo, 30, was sentenced to 16 years’ imprisonment for conspiring to sell prohibited weapons and ammunition.

Daniel Ngoo - from the Newham area - was jailed for 16 years for conspiring to sell prohibited weapons and ammunition (Image: Met Police)

Damian Meade, from Bow, was jailed for five years and four months.

The 34-year-old admitted to selling a prohibited weapon, namely a .45 calibre revolver, in February last year.

Bow man Damian Meade was sentenced to five years and four months' for selling a prohibited weapon (Image: Met Police)

Both men were part of a group of seven sentenced at Southwark Crown Court yesterday (Thursday, January 27).

All seven were arrested after a ten-week police operation into the activities of an organised crime group where five firearms were seized.

The operation to investigate the activities of the organised crime group (OCG) ran for ten weeks (Image: Met Police)

Meade - together with four other defendants; two from Basildon, one each from Hitchin and Southend respectively - pleaded guilty on June, meaning they did not stand trial.

They were each given custodial sentences, ranging between nine years and five years and three months.

Ngoo and co-defendant Stephen Donkor did stand trial, and were convicted on November 5 at Southwark Crown Court.

Over the course of four weeks, jurors heard how Ngoo had a leading role in the overall criminal enterprise, using co-defendant Donkor to source the weapons and to agree the prices with customers.

Donkor was Ngoo’s facilitator in the day to day running of the operation, and acted as a go-between for criminals wishing to buy and sell firearms and ammunition.

The 45-year-old - from Grays in Essex - received a 15-year custodial sentence.

He and Ngoo were arrested in Grays on February 23 last year.

The Met’s Flying Squad removed five handguns as part of the op (Image: Met Police)

The operation saw officers spend hundreds of hours on surveillance and arrest phases, with specialist officers from the Met and Essex Police taking part in 12 armed deployments.

Its success has been praised as an "excellent example of collaborative working" between the forces.

Det Supt Simon Moring, from central specialist crime, added: "The convictions and removal of these firearms from circulation shows the continued aim of the Met to protect the public from harm."