Just a couple of years ago, gun crime on the streets of Salford seemed out of control as the war between the city's gangs escalated to near-unprecedented levels. In the 12 months before April 2020 there had been 25 shootings - a number that was the highest level since the infamous Gooch and Doddington rivalry.
A six-year feud between gangsters in 'the A-Team' and 'the Antis' groups was the root of the latest crisis. It meant the number of shootings in Greater Manchester were at levels unseen for more than a decade.
Attacks were commonplace, and vicious. On Saturday, February 22 2020, a gunman opened fire at a car on Weaste Lane, near the junction with Willows Road in the city. It meant there had been 74 shootings of which 17 caused injuries, across Greater Manchester in 2019/20.
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It compared with 2008/09, when there were 84 shootings. In that year, offshoots of the Gooch and Doddington gangs were engaged in tit-for-tat conflict in south Manchester, resulting in the deaths of a number of young men.
After the Willows Road shooting in 2020, the late Norman Owen, former leader of the city's Liberal Democrats, told the Manchester Evening News: "This is serious. It is out of hand.
"As someone who has lived here since the 1980s I find it absolutely diabolical. For years we have had to put up with this across the city. Someone has to take a stance. I know the police have limited resources but shootings like this on the street are endangering innocent lives."
GMP, who had actually seized 13 firearms in the city in the previous year, were listening. Two months later a special team was set up as part of Operation Naseby, which was targeting organised crime in Salford. Covertly, and sometimes by using highly visible patrols, the team was spearheaded by seasoned detectives and collated intelligence in a bid to bring multiple prosecutions of the city's gunmen and violent criminals.
It was meant to be a short-sharp, six-week blitz on organised crime. Over 30 officers - including detectives, complex safeguarding officers, neighbourhood patrols, and pursuit-trained officers - were tasked with targeting offenders suspected of being involved in organised crime. It was meant to run for six weeks, but two years on is continuing to curb gun and other violent crime.
Shootings in Salford have reduced by over 70% since the dedicated anti-gang taskforce was set up. There have been 279 arrests, 297 vehicle seizures, 118 house searches, and nearly 50kilos of drugs recovered. Shootings are down 72%, with seven recorded in the last year and 15 in the year before.
A cache of weapons have been taken off the streets, including a loaded handgun, a shotgun, two loaded crossbows, a number of machetes and dozens of other knives and bladed articles, plus ammunition. Criminals have been sentenced to over 66 years worth of custodial sentences, with many others being recalled to prison or receiving criminal behaviour orders requiring them to continue abiding by strict conditions following their release from custody.
Most recently, drug dealer Zach Trott, 26, of Ellesmere Street, was jailed on Wednesday April 6 for two years and four months. He was caught by anti-gang cops caught after a 70mph chase.
A Bolton man was also put behind bars earlier this month after being stopped by covert Naseby officers patrolling just outside the Salford border when they spotted a suspicious vehicle in July 2020. Myles Hindley, 31, of New Street, Blackrod, was sentenced to two years in prison after he was found to be driving a £30,000 Range Rover that had been stolen from Bury less than six weeks earlier - despite him claiming that it was a hire car.
Swinton CID are also striving to intervene at an earlier stage when young people are involved in less-organised crime in the form of Urban Street Gangs (USGs). The aim is to divert younger people away from lower-level gang crime at an early stage will prevent future generations of organised criminals operating in Salford. Police School Engagement Officers are working with students in the city's schools and colleges.
Knife crime has also gone down in the city from 404 incidents from April 2020 to March 2021, to 385 from April 2021 to March 2022. This is a reduction of five per cent.
Police have carried out 100 house searches in the last year thanks to intelligence we have received from the public. Anyone with information can contact GMP online via LiveChat, if able, or by calling 101. Details can be passed anonymously to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Detective Chief Inspector Rick Thompson, head of GMP Salford's proactive policing, said: "After two years of Operation Naseby, it's plain to see the prolific impact our tireless disruption team have had in all corners of our city since it was introduced two years ago.
"When the taskforce was formed, it was on a short-term basis with the simple aim of getting under the skin of organised criminals and doing all we could to be out there on the streets stopping and searching suspects, their homes, the vehicles they were in and seizing anything of criminal value.
"That's seen us intercept and disrupt the type of activity organised crime groups were engaging in that was seeing us suffer the high rates of shootings we were seeing two years ago; now we're taking vehicles, drugs, and weapons from these individuals and arresting those suspected of being involved.
"We've been able to hugely increase our understanding of these groups - with over 500 intelligence logs being submitted - but I must stress that a great deal of information we receive comes from the public and thanks to the people of Salford we've have information that's lead us to well over 100 house searches.
"Our enforcement action has produced staggering results but it's still seven shootings too many, and our commitment now is to focus our work with partners and local neighbourhood teams into proactively intervening at an earlier stage with young people who may be at a risk of later being involved in organised crime.
"This work is vital in stamping out future generations of serious criminality, but also in reducing the ongoing concerns around violent crime, drug use, and anti-social behaviour in their communities that affects the people we serve on a daily basis."
