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Daily Mail
07-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Jailed terrorists are teaching fellow prisoners how to make bombs in extremist 'skills exchange' behind bars, report warns
Jailed terrorists are teaching their fellow prisoners to make bombs as part of a 'skills exchange' taking place inside British prisons, a report has warned. Gang members are said to be sharing their own knowledge in return, from how to exploit the dark web and launder money to advice on obtaining weapons for use in attacks. One detective warned that terrorists they had helped convict became more of a threat after serving their sentences due to connections they had formed behind bars. It follows rising concern about the deteriorating security situation in British prisons amid a series of shocking attacks on staff. One of the worst saw Manchester Arena bomb plotter Hashem Abedi, 28, attack three officers with improvised blades and hot cooking oil. Islamist gangs run rampant in several high-security prisons, where they exploit the constant threat of violence to force non-Muslim inmates to join for 'protection'. While prisons have long been thought of as places where criminals hone their skills, the new report suggests interactions between ordinary offenders and terrorists is part of an emerging 'crime-terror nexus'. Drawing on interviews with inmates, prison officers and experts, the research suggests terrorists are picking up important new skills, such as illicit financing techniques to fund their operations. On the other hand, organised criminals are learning how to make more deadly weapons. Dr Hannah Bennett, author of 'The Prison Crime-Terror Nexus', said: 'Some prisoners are coming out knowing how to make a bomb. 'Others are learning how to use the dark web or commit financial crime. For many, it's about protection – but it's also about opportunity.' One prisoner she spoke to described how, inside prison, he had learnt how to acquire and use 'lethal missiles and mobile phone activated detonators'. In her PhD thesis, Dr Bennett suggested that alliances between terrorists and organised criminals could continue outside prison walls. She pointed out that the terrorists behind the 2004 Madrid bombings financed the atrocity by dealing drugs, while Al-Qaeda militants have been known to raise funds through credit card fraud. The criminologist said the most fertile environment for conversations between terrorists and organised criminals were high-security prisons that had issues with corruption, violence and a lack of staff oversight. 'Where you have violent, chaotic prisons with no consistent regime and inmates who are co-located without proper oversight, the risk is exponentially higher,' she wrote. Responding to the study, shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said: 'Extremists and career criminals now operate with near impunity inside some of this country's highest-security prisons. 'That is a complete failure of leadership – and a dangerous abdication of one of the state's core duties: maintaining order behind bars. 'When Islamist terrorists and organised crime figures are left to forge alliances, we aren't just witnessing a security lapse – we're watching a national threat incubate in plain sight. This cannot be allowed to continue.' Dr Bennett's report called for improved training to help prison officers reduce the ability of terrorists and organised criminals to work together. She also warned of the threat of 'Prison Islam', which is defined by gang culture, loyalty, and selective interpretations of the Koran'. One example it provided were the 'Muslim Boys' gang in HMP Belmarsh, which pressured other prisoners into following a 'strict and extreme interpretation of Islam '. Hashem Abedi's attack took place inside the separation unit at HMP Frankland in County Durham, which is only one of two in the UK and houses a small number of the most radical terrorists. While they were intended to prevent the spread of Islamism, the rest of Frankland is now said to be so overrun by Muslim gangs that inmates who refuse to join them are now being housed inside its own unit for their protection. Tony Wyatt, a criminal defence barrister who regularly visits the jail, said some prisoners are being forced to serve their sentences in 'total lockdown' due to the breakdown in order. Prison officials have been repeatedly criticised for allegedly tolerating Islamist gangs in the belief that their existence supports order. In a 2022 report, Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation Jonathan Hall KC said that prison authorities have a 'tendency to view Islamist group behaviour' as providing 'a degree of calm and stability which means it is not necessarily perceived as a problem'. He added that there was a 'reluctance to focus on Islamist group behaviour' and prison officers would sometimes appeal to the 'wing emir' to maintain order. Ian Acheson, who called for the creation of separation units in a 2016 review of Islamic extremism in prison, believes jail bosses have been 'appeasing' these groups out of fear of being seen as racist. During research for his report, he said officers at Frankland 'spoke matter-of-factly about being taken hostage to be beheaded'.
Telegraph
06-07-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Terrorists teaching prisoners how to make bombs
Terrorists inside British prisons are teaching organised criminals how to make bombs, according to a study. In return, extremist inmates are learning from gang members how to launder money, use the dark web and obtain weapons that could be used in terror attacks. It comes amid increasing warnings about the rising threat of Islamist gangs following attacks on prison officers in jails. Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, said: 'Extremists and career criminals now operate with near impunity inside some of this country's highest-security prisons. 'That is a complete failure of leadership – and a dangerous abdication of one of the state's core duties: maintaining order behind bars. 'When Islamist terrorists and organised crime figures are left to forge alliances, we aren't just witnessing a security lapse – we're watching a national threat incubate in plain sight. This cannot be allowed to continue.' Prisons have often been thought of as operating like universities of crime, with inmates learning how to become more accomplished thieves, fraudsters and even drug dealers. But according to a new report, that knowledge exchange is starting to take place between ordinary criminals and terrorist inmates. Described as the prison crime-terror nexus, a study has found terrorists are learning illegal financial techniques to better fund their operations, while gang members and organised criminals are discovering how to assemble devastating new weapons to use against their rivals Drawing on interviews with prison officers, former governors, counter terror officials and prisoners, the research suggests divisions that may have once existed between terrorists and other inmates are beginning to break down. Dr Hannah Bennett, author of the study, said: 'Some prisoners are coming out knowing how to make a bomb. Others are learning how to use the dark web or commit financial crime. For many, it's about protection – but it's also about opportunity.' The study warns that a failure to identify and disrupt these exchanges risks allowing violent alliances to flourish both inside and beyond the prison walls. In some cases, released prisoners have continued hybrid activity – either joining gangs with ideological leanings or aiding terror networks in evading surveillance. The report points out how the terrorists behind the devastating 2004 Madrid bombings financed the operation through drug dealing while al-Qaeda operatives have also been known to raise money through sophisticated credit card fraud operations. Dr Bennett warned that the most fertile institutions for such a crossover are maximum security prisons where there is evidence of corruption, violence and a lack of oversight. She described these prisons as 'black hole' environments, adding: 'Where you have violent, chaotic prisons with no consistent regime and inmates who are co-located without proper oversight, the risk is exponentially higher.' One inmate who was interviewed for the study said the authorities seemed oblivious to what was going on. He said: 'We are blind to it. There are prisoners coming out more radicalised, more connected and more capable – and no one's clocking it.' Prof Ian Acheson, a former prison governor who also served in the Home Office as the director of community safety, said: 'We have several 'black hole' prisons where a combination of weak authority, inexperience and poor leadership means the state has effectively surrendered the environment to prisoners. 'The Chief Inspector of Prisons keeps identifying these places and it is extremely concerning to see some of our high-security prisons are in that number. 'Here, ideologically inspired offenders and organised crime leaders can mix freely. Where you have such lethal capacity cheek by jowl with people with the capability to obtain weapons and help escapes there is an enduring risk to national security. 'It's a perfectly rational partnership for those whose only interest is profit. And it can happen in prisons where ferocious violence and staff retreat is becoming the norm.' The findings come after several high-profile attacks on prison officers and reports of drones delivering drugs into prisons. In April, Hashem Abedi, the Manchester Arena bomber, who is serving life for 22 murders, attacked three officers in a separation unit at the high security HMP Frankland, in Co Durham. And in May, Axel Rudakubana, the Southport killer, allegedly threw boiling water from his kettle over an officer at HMP Belmarsh. Dr Bennett's report calls for urgent reform of prison intelligence strategy, including improved staff training, a clear operational definition of the prison nexus threat, and a structured assessment tool to identify high-risk jails. She concluded: 'The risk is not just ideological or criminal – it's both. If we continue to treat them in silos, we're going to miss what's happening in the overlap.' Ministers must pay attention to this insight into how terrorists and criminals work together in prisons By Prof Ian Acheson Prisons are traditionally places where alliances are made between criminals who see incarceration as an occupational hazard. Criminologists find this opportunistic behaviour, if distasteful, perfectly rational. When I worked in the prison service in the 1990s, an inordinate amount of my time was spent trying to disrupt and deter organised criminals and paedophiles from networking to extend their power on either side of the prison walls. This cosy old paradigm has been changed forever by the inclusion in the prison population of increasing numbers of terrorist offenders. People who kill for ideas are very different from those after money or sexual deviants. But the idea they cannot cooperate is dangerously naive and woefully under researched. This is why newly released research into the Prison Crime Terror Nexus by Dr Hannah Bennett is so significant. Dr Bennett is one of those rare researchers who combines theoretical and operational experience. We met at the University of Staffordshire and I have supported her work which I am glad to see published. Ministers should pay great attention to this study. Today's prison environment is poisoned by drugs and extreme violence. Terrorists attacks on prison staff have avoided death by millimetres and seconds. The potential for those with the capability to give support to those with the capacity for terrorism is not an abstract idea, it is a real and present danger. Dr Bennett has offered an insight into how terrorists and criminals work together in the prison environment for mutual benefit. Her findings are the result of multiple interviews with prisoners and prison professionals, many detailing a chilling degree of mutual cooperation and a high degree of dysfunction in intelligence collection and dissemination from the front line to the HQ boardrooms. In part this breakdown reflects the different objectives of the prison service and policing. I know from personal experience just how difficult it is to get senior officials at the headquarters level to understand their primary role in protecting national security. Too many prison professionals at senior levels subscribe to a kind of 'reclamation theology' that puts saving souls ahead of hard nosed threat management. This cultural blindness contributes to what Dr Bennett calls with rather more delicacy than I am capable as the 'intelligence capability gap'. This lack of appetite to join the dots and do something about it is most apparent in how Dr Bennett adopts and extends the theory of 'black hole prisons'. These places are akin to failed states where rampant instability, weak or absent authority, corruption, poor leadership and a rampant drugs economy create voids of power quickly filled an exploited by stronger forces such as gangs and extremists. Dr Bennett has taken this theory and applied it to identify the meeting points of organised crime and terrorism in some of our allegedly most secure prisons. These are places like HMPs Belmarsh, Long Lartin, Whitemoor and Frankland that hold the majority of our terrorist offenders in close proximity to crime family bosses and postcode gang leaders. These are not places where it possible to say the state is fully in control. Cooperation between these groups is likely when shared opportunities and goals transcend ideological differences or any adverse consequences. This is not an altogether new phenomenon. In 1994 at Whitemoor prison, shortly after it opened, IRA terrorists escaped the prison briefly with a London gangster Andy Russell. Russell was serving a sentence for hijacking a helicopter to spring two prisoners from HMP Gartree some years before. All had been held in the special security unit (SSU) a supposedly escape proof prison within a prison. Staff there had been so intimidated the gang was able to smuggle in weapons and explosives. In some of the high-security prisons I have listed today, cell window drone deliveries make it at least theoretically possible that the drugs payload they have controlled by organised criminals could have weapons and ammunition included. We are closer to ths reality than any official is prepared to admit. Dr Bennett has offered a framework for prison bosses to identify where this nexus is likely to emerge. 'Prisoners are in control' When I worked in prison order and control at a national level, our preoccupation was identifying the characteristics of prisoners who would cause riots and ensuring that there was a balanced mix across all establishments to prevent disorder. It is somewhat paradoxical that the threat or widespread disorder has receded today in large part because prisoners are in control of an environment where drugs are easily available and authority is in retreat. This Faustian pact will not hold where ideologically motivated prisoners are located. For many, not all of these terrorist offenders, the war against the state goes on and the targets have merely changed from civilians to the men and women in uniform looking after them. It is vital that meticulous research like Dr Bennett's is seen and considered by ministers and not through the lens of bureaucrats who have allowed this nexus to flourish. Terrorists and organised criminals have worked together before and will do so again. The stakes are very high.
BreakingNews.ie
01-06-2025
- General
- BreakingNews.ie
Tories in call to arm specialist prison officers to counter Islamist gangs
The Conservatives have called for some UK prison officers to have access to firearms to counter 'out of control' Islamist gangs and violent prisoners. Conservative shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said specialist teams should be armed with Tasers, stun grenades, and in some circumstances, lethal weapons. Advertisement He also called for high-collar stab vests to be provided to frontline officers right away, citing the threat from inmates after recent attacks on prison officers. 'Islamist gangs and violent prisoners in our jails are out of control. It's a national security emergency, but the Government is dithering. 'If they don't act soon, there is a very real risk that a prison officer is kidnapped or murdered in the line of duty, or that a terrorist attack is directed from inside prison,' he wrote in The Telegraph. Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick (PA) He said he had commissioned former prison governor Ian Acheson to carry out a rapid review. Advertisement 'We have to stop pussy-footing around Islamist extremists and violent offenders in jails,' he wrote. 'That means arming specialist prison officer teams with Tasers and stun grenades, as well as giving them access to lethal weapons in exceptional circumstances. 'If prison governors can't easily keep terrorist influencers and radicalising inmates apart from the mainstream prisoners they target, then we don't control our prisons – they do. We must take back control and restore order by giving officers the powers and protection they need.' It come after attacks by high-profile inmates. Advertisement Manchester Arena plotter Hashem Abedi targeted prison staff with boiling oil and homemade weapons in a planned ambush last month. Southport killer Axel Rudakubana allegedly attacked a prison officer at HMP Belmarsh earlier this month by pouring boiling water over them. UK justice secretary Shabana Mahmood has ordered a snap review into whether stab vests should be used more routinely, and a trial that will give specialised officers dealing with serious incidents Tasers is due to be launched this summer. Officers already have access to batons and Pava spray, a synthetic form of pepper spray, in men's prisons in the public sector. Advertisement A British Ministry of Justice source said the UK government has a 'zero-tolerance approach' to violence and extremism in prisons. 'The last Government added just 500 cells to our prison estate, and left our jails in total crisis. In fourteen years, they closed 1,600 cells in the high-security estate, staff assaults soared, and experienced officers left in droves. Now the arsonists are pretending to be firefighters. 'This Government is cleaning up the mess the last Government left behind. We are building new prisons, with 2,400 new cells opened since we took office. And we take a zero-tolerance approach to violence and extremism inside.'
The Independent
01-06-2025
- General
- The Independent
Tories in call to arm specialist prison officers to counter Islamist gangs
The Conservatives have called for some prison officers to have access to firearms to counter 'out of control' Islamist gangs and violent prisoners. Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said specialist teams should be armed with Tasers, stun grenades, and in some circumstances, lethal weapons. He also called for high-collar stab vests to be provided to frontline officers right away, citing the threat from inmates after recent attacks on prison officers. 'Islamist gangs and violent prisoners in our jails are out of control. It's a national security emergency, but the Government is dithering. 'If they don't act soon, there is a very real risk that a prison officer is kidnapped or murdered in the line of duty, or that a terrorist attack is directed from inside prison,' he wrote in The Telegraph. He said he had commissioned former prison governor Ian Acheson to carry out a rapid review. 'We have to stop pussy-footing around Islamist extremists and violent offenders in jails,' he wrote. 'That means arming specialist prison officer teams with Tasers and stun grenades, as well as giving them access to lethal weapons in exceptional circumstances. 'If prison governors can't easily keep terrorist influencers and radicalising inmates apart from the mainstream prisoners they target, then we don't control our prisons – they do. We must take back control and restore order by giving officers the powers and protection they need.' It come after attacks by high-profile inmates. Manchester Arena plotter Hashem Abedi targeted prison staff with boiling oil and homemade weapons in a planned ambush last month. Southport killer Axel Rudakubana allegedly attacked a prison officer at HMP Belmarsh earlier this month by pouring boiling water over them. Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has ordered a snap review into whether stab vests should be used more routinely, and a trial that will give specialised officers dealing with serious incidents Tasers is due to be launched this summer. Officers already have access to batons and Pava spray, a synthetic form of pepper spray, in men's prisons in the public sector. A Ministry of Justice source said the Government has a 'zero-tolerance approach' to violence and extremism in prisons. 'The last Government added just 500 cells to our prison estate, and left our jails in total crisis. In fourteen years, they closed 1,600 cells in the high-security estate, staff assaults soared, and experienced officers left in droves. Now the arsonists are pretending to be firefighters. 'This Government is cleaning up the mess the last Government left behind. We are building new prisons, with 2,400 new cells opened since we took office. And we take a zero-tolerance approach to violence and extremism inside.'
Daily Mail
01-06-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
MPs call for prison wardens to be armed with Tasers, stun grenades and 'baton rounds' following string of attacks in UK jails
Prison wardens must be armed with Tasers, stun grenades and 'baton rounds' that fire rubber bullets to protect themselves against violent criminals, Conservative MPs have said. Armouries should also be built in high-security jails, holding lethal weapons as a last resort against violent prisoners, according to proposals to get tough in jails after a spate of attacks. Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick also wants solitary confinement introduced for gang leaders who are radicalising other inmates to tackle Islamist threats in British jails. Violent prisoners should also have no access to kitchens and appliances, he said. It comes after a series of attacks in prisons, including Southport killer Axel Rudakubana, who allegedly injured a prison officer with boiling water from a kettle. The calls follow a Tory-backed review by former prison governor Ian Acheson. Mr Jenrick said: 'Islamist gangs and violent prisoners in our jails are out of control. It's a national security emergency but the government is dithering. 'If they don't act soon, there is a very real risk a prison officer is kidnapped or murdered in the line of duty, or that a terrorist attack is directed from inside prison.' He added: 'We have to stop pussy-footing around Islamist extremists and violent offenders in jails. 'That means arming specialist prison officer teams with Tasers and stun grenades, as well as giving them access to lethal weapons in exceptional circumstances.' Mr Acheson said: 'The threat to officer safety is now intolerable and must be met decisively by the Government.' A Ministry of Justice source said: 'The last Government added just 500 cells to our prison estate and left our jails in total crisis. 'In 14 years, they closed 1,600 cells in the high-security estate, staff assaults soared and experienced officers left in droves. Now the arsonists are pretending to be firefighters. 'We are building new prisons, with 2,400 new cells opened since we took office. 'And we take a zero-tolerance approach to violence and extremism inside.'
