Arrest after reports of drone flown over HMP Long Lartin
West Mercia Police are searching for two other people while the man remains in custody.
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Daily Mail
13 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Moment wounded Ukrainian soldier escapes Russian forces... on an e-bike that was delivered by drone
This is the astonishing moment a wounded Ukrainian soldier who was stranded for several days behind enemy lines was able to escape after he was delivered an e-bike by a drone. Footage captured by the Rubizh brigade of Ukraine 's national guard shows an unmanned aerial vehicle hauling the 88-pound bike down to the injured serviceman before he is seen cycling away from Russian forces. Three of the brigade's troops were reportedly killed by enemy fire during the operation in the Siversk area in northern Ukraine, which left the soldier to hold down the position on his own for five days. He also sustained a leg injury, making it difficult for him to evacuate alone. 'The enemy was in front, behind, and on both flanks. Completely surrounded,' Mykola Hrytsenko, a junior lieutenant serving as the brigade's chief of staff, said in a video published on Wednesday. The soldier said his team came up with an evacuation plan that involved heavy cargo drones to carry the bicycle to his position. These types of drones are usually used by Ukraine as bombers but can also lift heavy cargo. Hrytsenko said his comrades initially lost two drones trying to deliver the electric vehicles to him. The first was shot down as it attempted to deliver the bike, while the second crashed after its motors burned out. Mykola Gristenko, a chief of staff in the brigade, said a rescue team could not reach the injured soldier without risking their own lives. 'It was impossible to drive up with equipment because the enemy was everywhere. He couldn't get out on his own either, because he had to walk 1.5km to the nearest position. 'In his condition, with his injuries and lower limbs, he simply wouldn't have made it.' Drones have become an integral tool used by Ukraine during the war with Russia, allowing troops to navigate enemy lines without risking soldiers' lives. It comes after Ukraine unleashed chaos at Moscow's four airports last week with drone strikes on the city. Hundreds of passenger planes had to be diverted as waves of unmanned flying bombs converged on the Russian capital. Footage showed explosions as Russian air defences attacked incoming unmanned planes in Zelenograd, a district 23 miles northwest of the Kremlin. The soldier said his team came up with an evacuation plan that involved heavy cargo drones to carry the bicycle to his position Russia's defence ministry claimed to have downed 93 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 19 that were approaching Moscow. But during the chaos, authorities were twice forced close airspace over Moscow. Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency diverted some 134 planes to alternate airports amid the mayhem, saying it was 'necessary to ensure the safety of civil aircraft flights'. Frustrated passengers - including tourists on summer vacations - were hit by delays, diverted flights and numerous cancellations in an apparent new tactic by Ukraine to paralyse air travel in Vladimir Putin's capital. Many bedded down at the airports amid the chaos as airports Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, Vnukovo and Zhukovsky were all affected.
Daily Mail
13 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Terrorist who confessed to masterminding 7/7 London bombings AND 9/11 'could be walking the streets of Britain in days'
A 'despicable' terrorist who confessed to his role in 9/11 and the July 7 bombings is set to be freed from prison within days despite officials declaring him a 'risk to national security'. Haroon Aswat, 50, could be released from a secure hospital unit in the UK without a full risk assessment due to his mental health treatment. He was jailed in 2015 in the US for 20 years having admitted trying to start a terrorist training camp in Oregon. Aswat was visited by a British psychiatrist in America before he was deported back to Britain in 2022 where he declared: 'I'm a terrorist.' Now newly-surfaced US court documents show Aswat also confessed to being a 'mastermind behind the [9/11] attacks and a 2005 attack in the UK', The Sun has reported. In addition to his connection to the 7/7 London terror bombings, which killed 52 people, Aswat has also threatened to kill Jews, Christians and certain groups of Muslims. Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick said he feared Aswat's return to the streets of Britain and said: 'He should never experience freedom again.' Despite officials admitting their concern and the High Court's Mr Justice Robert Jay previously saying there was 'evidence of an ongoing risk', Aswat will only be subject to a notification order upon his release. It means Aswat must continually notify the police about certain information and keep them up-to-date. These details include his address, foreign travel details and vehicle registration. Earlier this year Mr Justice Jay concluded: 'These were very serious offences and there is evidence of ongoing risk. 'A risk assessment in relation to terrorist offending is always inherently uncertain and in the present case is compounded by the mental instability of the defendant. 'Overall, I am satisfied for the reasons that I have given that a notification order should be made in all the circumstances of this case. 'A psychiatrist has deemed his treatment as being effective and his release from detention is expected in the relatively near future, with the understanding being that he will return to his family in Yorkshire.' He added: 'No formal terrorist risk assessment has been carried out since the defendant's return here. The circumstances of his detention have precluded that. 'However, on the basis of the material which is available the defendant has been assessed by various police officers — including the senior officer dealing with this case — that he remains a risk to national security.' A document from the US District Court, which has been released for the first time, described Aswat as a terrorist and foot soldier of al-Qaeda, and revealed he openly admitted to his involvement in terrorist activities. 'In March 2017 the defendant stated, 'if you think I am a terrorist, I don't shy away from my responsibility' and also stated he was a mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks and a 2005 terrorist attack in the UK.' The papers show that Aswat revealed his associations with Osama bin Laden and that he had spent time training in al-Queda camps in Afghanistan just months before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, which claimed more than 3,000 lives. His name was also found on a ledger discovered in a house in Pakistan where Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the 'architect' of 9/11, had been staying. Other activities included helping hate preacher Abu Hamza establish a US terror camp in 1999, staying at a house in Pakistan in 2002 - where he met two of the 7/7 bombers - and possessing a terror manual and alleged bomb materials. Police also traced 20 calls made by the 7/7 bombers to a phone connected to Aswat. Det Chief Supt Gareth Rees, head of operations for the Met's SO15 Counter Terrorism Command, said of Aswat in a witness statement: 'Based on my experience, this is conduct which gives me grave concerns about the risk which the defendant poses to the UK's national security and to the public.' A report compiled by Dr Richard Taylor, who travelled to America in the summer of 2022, found Aswat still posed a risk to the public. The report states that in 2017 Aswat made remarks to prison staff in support of Al Qaeda and threatened violence towards them. In 2022 he sent letters which made demands and death threats, seemingly motivated by a terrorist ideology. Dr Taylor concluded that he openly endorsed an extremist ideology, but there was no evidence that Aswat was mentally ill. However he had had limited opportunity to address the extremist mindset and showed traits of glibness, superficial charm, charisma, intelligence and elements of manipulativeness and narcissism. Even when mentally stable he continued to express violent, extremist Islamic ideology, Dr Taylor found. The diagnosis showed a schizoaffective disorder with symptoms showing unpredictable and aggressive behaviour. Dr Taylor did not complete a full terrorist risk assessment, but identified 15 of the 22 relevant factors in the government's extreme risk guidance. He concluded: 'There remains the risk of Islamic violent extremism motivated targeted terrorist offending behaviour given his threats to kill Jews, Christians and certain groups of Muslims. 'There is also a risk of him influencing other vulnerable individuals, as when he is in an abnormal mental state his religious extremist rhetoric is amplified by mental illness.' A senior police officer, Detective Inspector Karen Bradley, who was involved in the case, concluded that Aswat remains a risk to national security. Aswat was born and grew up in Yorkshire but moved to Wood Green in north London where he fell under the spell of hate preacher Abu Hamza - and together they planned a terror training camp in Oregon with Aswat moving to Seattle to organise it. He also spent time in Afghanistan and in Pakistan - where he met and associated with fellow Yorkshire terror sympathiser Mohammed Sidique Khan and his accomplice Shehzad Tanweer. They would go on to carry out the deadly 7/7 bombings in London which killed 52 people on underground trains and a bus in July 2005. Aswat served most of his sentence in America and was deported back to the UK in December 2022. He is currently detained at Bethlem Royal Hospital in Bromley, south east London. A Government spokesman said: 'Protecting our national security is the very first priority of this government and if any individual poses a threat to that security, the police and intelligence services have a range of powers they can apply to deal with that threat. 'We will always do whatever is necessary inside the law to protect the public from any risk posed by former terrorist offenders or people of terrorist concern.'
Daily Mail
16 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
How Britain's most upmarket cocaine ring was smashed: Wealthy clients, drugs of 'mind-blowing' quality, impeccable service... all run by a mild-mannered antiques dealer
Their cocaine was the best in the City, their delivery times unparalleled and their customer relations attentive and deferential. It was no wonder they called themselves the Top Gear gang. Clients ranged from lawyers and traders to insurers and recruitment specialists – almost 10,000 of them, all expecting high-end service and mind-blowing quality. Everyone who was anyone in the Square Mile knew the number of the Top Gear phone line – also called City Gear. It had been operating under the police radar since 2014, shifting millions of pounds worth of Class A drugs to well-off customers. Detectives say the men behind the operation provided a middle class service to a largely middle class clientele – until it came crashing down thanks to an ingenious investigation by the City of London police. The mild-mannered and bookish head of the Top Gear gang, 57-year-old antiques trader Nathan Samuels, has now been jailed for nine years at Inner London Crown Court. Four of his fast delivery couriers – including a black cabbie – received prison sentences ranging from two years suspended to four years and three months in jail. All had pleaded guilty to a string of cocaine supplying offences. Last week, Samuels' son, Matthew, 33, was imprisoned for three and a half years for his part in the operation. 'We'd never seen anything like it – it was the longest-running and one of the biggest drug lines the City had ever known,' says lead Detective Constable Matt Cooper from the force's Serious Organised Crime team. 'It sold 80 per cent pure cocaine – when the norm was about 50 per cent – and promised to get drugs to customers in less than 30 minutes. And if a client complained about a slow delivery, they'd receive an apology.' Meticulously compiled ledgers seized by the police when the gang members were arrested in 2023 showed that in any given week they were selling up to £16,400 worth of cocaine, almost exclusively in the City. At the head of the operation was the most unlikely of crime bosses – a man with no criminal record at all. Nathan Samuels, a father of four and grandfather of two, lived in an £800-a month four storey council house in Cornwall Road, a stone's throw from Waterloo Station, and had an interest in London books and artwork. He had a business selling antiques, jewellery and watches, and owned a company – Samsite Ltd – which specialised in renting spaces outside train stations and subletting them to fast food takeaway trucks. These included sites outside Waterloo and Southwark stations which were brought to their knees during the Covid pandemic as customers dwindled to almost nothing – and police believe this downturn could have focused Samuels' attention on the drugs business. City police's investigation ran from March 2022 to October 2023 and during that period detectives established that the key phones in the operation had been in use since 2014. But such devices – whose contacts are a list ready-made drugs businesses – can change hands for large sums of money. It is thought Samuels' Covid difficulties could have driven him to buying one. 'He ran the business like a taxi cab office,' says Detective Sergeant Darren Norman, who oversaw the case. 'They called their wraps of cocaine "tickets", so a customer would ring or message the Top Gear line and tell Samuels they wanted so many tickets delivered to a particular location or postcode. Samuels was able to track all his couriers using their phones, and would choose the nearest one to the customer. That's why it was so fast.' Because the cocaine was so pure, it was only sold in half-gram wraps at one for £50, two for £90, three for £140 and five for £200. Couriers, who were paid £300 a day plus bonuses for good sales, were encouraged to be customer-friendly and smart. As added perks, any congestion charge fees, parking tickets and car hire expenses were covered. Samuels would hire up to six couriers a day, each expected to make between 50 and 75 sales. Deliveries took place from 10am to midnight. One of the couriers, Michael Redgrave, 56, who lived on the same street as Samuels, used his black cab to make deliveries. A cabbie for 23 years, he told police he was making up to £500 a day from his taxi business, and a further £300 for drug drop-offs. A father of four and grandfather of one, detectives say he used some of the money to take his family on lavish holidays. He was also the proud owner of a purebred British bulldog. 'During 30 years as a police officer, I've never come across a London cabbie we've caught dealing drugs,' says DS Norman. 'They're usually honest individuals who take pride in all the work they've put in to do The Knowledge. But he made the decision to deliver drugs – and it was almost the perfect crime. Nobody would think twice about a person getting into a cab, being driven off and then getting out farther down the road with cocaine in their pocket.' The Top Gear operation began to unravel when, in February 2022, another courier, Gary Miller, 36, from Islington, was caught making a cocaine delivery. As detectives examined his phone records, they were able to begin a huge and meticulous cross-referencing operation that led to customers, fellow couriers – and, eventually, to gang boss Samuels. The investigation was groundbreaking because police were able to close down the most sophisticated cocaine operation on their patch – and elicit guilty pleas – without carrying out any large-scale seizures. In fact, the drugs they found were almost exclusively recovered from customers during the arrests of couriers who had just delivered to them. The cross-referencing of calls and delivery locations enabled the police to begin making arrests without having to catch the couriers in possession of drugs. Samuels' son Matthew, a personal trainer and father of one, also a director of Samsite Ltd, was arrested with no drugs on him. Unlike the other gang members, he did not reply 'no comment' to every question during interview. Instead, he made risible excuses to Detectives Cooper and Norman. 'We asked why there were so many references on his phone to "Charlie", which is slang for cocaine, and "Henry", short for Henry VIII – which, in drugs circles, refers to an eighth of an ounce of cannabis, which he had a sideline selling,' says DS Norman. 'He insisted that Charlie and Henry were friends of his. And he kept that up right up until court when he changed his plea to guilty for supplying cannabis.' He pleaded not guilty to the cocaine charges, but was later found guilty. Also found with no drugs – but entering guilty pleas – were couriers Aaron Bretao, 43, from Clerkenwell, and Martin Gupta, 35, from Barnet. They were arrested in May 2023. Gupta, who had previous convictions for actual bodily harm, assault, and being drunk and disorderly, was caught empty-handed but he had been witnessed making two drug deals before his arrest. Driving a moped, delivering drugs had been his full-time job for around three years. Police say he had been overheard boasting to friends that he was making up to £3,000 a week. He spent much of it on holidays to destinations such as Cape Verde and Morocco with his wife and stepdaughter. After the arrests of Miller (who was given 45 months in prison at an earlier hearing), Gupta and Bretao, Nathan Samuels feared the police would be coming for him next and handed over three drug phones for safekeeping to another gang member, Josh Atherton, 24, a former carpenter. But detectives had already linked him to the operation. When they raided his home in Hemingford Road, Islington, two days after detaining Gupta, Atherton had none of the vital phones on him – but DS Norman found them during a search of nearby gardens. 'He had thrown them there, but once DS Norman had sniffed them out, you could say the net had closed on Samuels,' says DC Cooper. 'Two of those phones had numbers used for the Top Gear drug lines – and inside those handsets we found the contact details of more than 9,700 customers.' Police also recovered ledgers at Atherton's home detailing the gang's incomings and outgoings. They reinforced the case against Nathan Samuels. Samuels and son were arrested simultaneously a week later, on July 12 2023. Again, no drugs were found, yet guilty pleas were forthcoming because of the airtight nature of the communications evidence against them. 'Nathan Samuels wasn't like Pablo Escobar, sitting on piles of coke,' says DS Norman. 'We found no drugs at all. He was calm and mild-mannered. But after the arrests of the other gang members, he had probably been expecting us.' Officers did not discover the source of the Top Gear gang's supply of drugs, but it may not be a coincidence that Nathan's nephew, Harry Hicks-Samuels, 28, was jailed in November 2022 for conspiracy to import cocaine. He had been caught as a result of a National Crime Agency operation after French police cracked a secret messaging system called EncroChat which had been widely used by international criminals who wrongly thought its sophisticated encryption was foolproof. Again, it may not be a coincidence that Hicks-Samuels, like his uncle, ran a business selling watches, an enterprise that turned out to be a front for his cocaine operation. No Top Gear customers have faced criminal charges, but all those caught after buying drugs in the moments before the couriers were arrested were given cautions for possession. Their evidence helped bring down the organised crime group. However, the top 2,000 most prolific customers were subsequently given a jolt as strong as anything the Top Gear gang ever sold them. They were sent a text message by the City of London police that would have had hearts racing. 'Significant police activity has highlighted that this number has been used to contact the "City Gear" drug line, a number involved in the supply of Class A drugs,' it read. 'Drug misuse can affect your employment. Drug possession is still illegal and can lead to your arrest. Convictions for drug misuse can affect your right to travel to certain countries.' It then advised them to seek help at the City and Hackney Recovery Service provided by Turning Point – helpfully including the drug charity's website, .
