Undercover officer posed as a drug dealer looking to buy guns and nailed 24 gangsters in just three years
The criminals he helped catch committed 78 offences in gun crime capital Salford
AN undercover cop posing as a drug dealer nailed 24 gangsters in three years.
Using the alias John Sherwood, the officer pretended to be a crooked cafe owner looking to buy guns.
The criminals he helped catch committed 78 offences in gun crime capital Salford.
His biggest scalp was Terence Hamer, 45, who admitted selling guns and supplying drugs and was jailed for 15 years at Manchester crown court.
“Sherwood” put his life on hold for three years to infiltrate gangs in an area with 50 shootings in 16 months.
RELATED STORIES
Judge Martin Rudland praised Sherwood as he sentenced the gangsters at Manchester Crown Court and said: “The undercover officer found an unswept corner of society. His was the most incredible work.”
Chief Supt Mary Doyle, of Greater Manchester Police said: “It is because of officers like this one we are able to infiltrate gangs like these.
“To be an undercover officer deployed into those gangs you have to be credible simply to stay alive. You almost have to sacrifice your own life as you have to be someone else.
“The sale of drugs and outbreaks of violence in the locality were a consistent feature in the lives of those who became embroiled in this underworld.
“This operation removed guns from the streets and directly stopped countless further criminal acts occurring.”