YOUNG teens brag of spilling blood “like vimto”, while criminals spray a funeral wake with bullets and cops discover a loaded weapon hanging from a fence.
This is the reality of life on the streets of Birmingham, where gangs are waging war with pistols and shotguns.
The city is Britain’s number one hotspot for police firearms operations as weapons flood the West Midlands.
Experts say gangs are dragging kids as young as 10 into street warfare as they extend their reach beyond traditional postcode territories, recruiting new members through social media and drill rap.
One ex-gang member told The Sun: “Guns are everywhere.
“Parts of Birmingham are like a ghetto and it’s all about who you know. Weapons aren’t that hard to get hold of if you know the right people.
“Once you’ve got them you better be prepared to use them because everyone knows you’re carrying and it makes you a target for other gangs.”
One insider claimed that gangs are joining airport staff and working their way up as part of gun smuggling operations.
The intelligence source said: "There are very few ways to get weapons into the UK and it's not easy so it pays for the gangs to have airport staff in their pockets.
"At the extreme end, more respectable looking gang members are joining security staff at airports and waving guns through.
"The West Midlands is rife with weapons."
Shocking CCTV footage released earlier this month show just how commonplace guns have become in Birmingham after balaclava-clad thugs fired a shotgun at staff in a computer shop during a brazen daylight raid.
The gang smashed their way into the shop in Smethwick, four miles west of the city centre, with axes before shooting a man in the arm in January 2023.
Getaway driver Jamal Hussain, 22, of Walsall, fled the country after the raid but was collared at Birmingham airport on his return in May this year and was this month jailed for nine years and two months.
It comes after promising young footballer Sekou Doucoure, 16, who once played for Nottingham Forest FC, was knifed in the chest with an eight-inch blade after being caught up in gang war in the city in July 2022.
The two boys convicted of manslaughter were both carrying fake firearms - an indication of how guns have become glamorised by the city's underworld.
Pierre Thomas, 18, of Birmingham, and a 17-year-old boy, who can not be named, were cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to nine years detention.
A court heard how Sekou, who ran with a gang in the B20 postcode, was killed in retaliation for entering a rival territory armed with a blade.
In November 2021, a 13-year-old was left paralysed after being shot in an underpass in Hockley, Birmingham, by members of the city’s notorious Armed Response gang.
The attackers shot their anonymous victim with a homemade shotgun, known as a slam gun, as he desperately tried to escape up a grass bank.
Zidann Edwards and Diago Anderson, both 20, and teenager Tarfique Thomas, then 17, were jailed for life for attempted murder.
The shooting lays bare the extent to which Birmingham’s gangs are using guns.
The ex-gang member we spoke to, who asked not to be named, warned that teenagers are increasingly carrying fake weapons to “act hard.”
He said: “Some of the young kids are running about with fake guns to try and act like the big man but they are putting a target on their own back.
“The harder you act, you better be backing that act up because other gangs will be coming for you.”
Birmingham has long been populated by gangs, with its main rivals being the Burger Bar Boys in Aston and Johnson Crew in neighbouring Handsworth, which both emerged in the 1980s.
Two teenage girls became innocent victims of a long-running dispute between the gangs in 2003.
Charlene Ellis, 18, and 17-year-old Letisha Shakespeare died in a bungled drive-by shooting as they left a New Year’s Eve party.
Younger offshoots of both gangs are still waging war - and taunting each other on social media with drill rap.
Government crime statistics reveal the West Midlands has the country’s highest number of police firearms operations per head of population at 72, compared to places like Lancashire, which had just eight, and Cumbria with 10.
In August, a gun loaded with seven bullets was found in a bag hanging from a garden fence in Soho in the city.
Gunmen open fire in Birmingham - famous for its Peaky Blinders gangsters - at least once a week, according to police figures.
Since the start of 2022, the city has been rocked by 119 shootings and guns retrieved by cops have included shotguns, revolvers, handguns and home-made weapons.
Despite the dangers, gang members still boast of maiming and trying to kill each other in TikTok raps.
One rapper talks about “juice (blood) gets spilled like vimto” while another describes a stabbing: “I remember that day so clear, had high pitch voice when I touched his skin, watch his eyes roll back like a jinn.”
If you buy a gun you better be ready to use it
Ex gang member
It seems no areas or occasions are secret, either, after a gunman opened fire at a funeral wake.
Meshaq Berryman, 21, sent mourners ducking for cover at a wake for 17-year-old Akeem Bailey - believing that rival gang members would be at the funeral.
Three teenagers were hit in the drive-by shooting in February 2023 and a 14 year-old hurt after she was trampled on by fleeing family and friends.
Akeem was stabbed in the neck by 18-year-old Zechariah Nelson in Ladywood, Birmingham, in October 2022 in a row over a mobile phone. Nelson was later jailed for life for manslaughter.
Cops said Akeem was not linked to gangs but Berryman expected postcode rivals to be at the ceremony. He has been convicted of three counts of attempted murder and will be sentenced next month.
Birmingham has a long history of gang warfare
Peaky Blinders fans will be aware of Birmingham’s blood-soaked gangster history but today’s gangs are younger and, in many ways, more violent - striking indiscriminately.
One of today’s most well-known gangs is Armed Response, or AR for short.
A younger offshoot of the notorious Burger Bar Boys, who have been around since the 1980s, their territory lies on the west side of the A41 in Hockley.
They show allegiance by wearing red and their motto is to ‘present and fight’.
They came to prominence in 2016 when police nabbed AR member Reial Phillips, who, with other gang members, boasted about shooting people and mocked rivals the Johnson crew in sickening online videos.
Phillips, known in the rap world as Lynch, was jailed for 27 years in 2016 for his role in a gangland turf war which saw six people shot in 2015. He admitted firearms offences and conspiring to sell cocaine and heroin but his sentence was later reduced to 20 years on appeal.
In 2017, the Burger Bar Boys and rivals the Johnson Crew were banned from parts of Birmingham for two-years in what police described as the largest-ever gang injunction.
Armed Responses’ main rivals are the 9Boyz, believed to be younger members of the Johnson Crew, who are also linked to an urban group called the Get Money Gang.
It's believed the crew is behind the shooting of innocent Keon Lincoln, a 15-year-old who was stabbed and shot dead in broad daylight outside his home in Handsworth in January 2021.
Evidence at his trial did not identify a motive for the attack but it has since been claimed his killers were associated with 9Boyz and may have killed Keon simply because he knew people in Armed Response - despite having nothing to do with gangs.
Dr Simon Harding, director of the National Centre for Gangs Research Ltd, said gangs are spreading their reach further than ever before through social media.
He also claimed Britain’s cities could face a gun crisis after the Ukraine war as black market gangsters get their hands on weapons.
Dr Harding said: “Gangs are becoming much more savvy on social media, using it as an extended platform.
“It used to be you were part of a gang because you lived in on a certain estate or next to it - it was decreed by postcode.
“Now you can live in Wolverhampton and be part of a gang in Dudley, or live in Croydon and part of a group in Hackney.
“Drill rap is providing a platform for members on social media. It’s now possible for the average kid, who has nothing to do with gangs, to be sucked into the culture by ‘liking’ something on TikTok.
“Someone in the gang might now reach out to them and say, ‘hey, I saw you liked this post, have you seen this one?’ A conversation begins and they can be pulled in to the gang.
“Gang members are joining at a young age, down to 12, even 10, and staying on for longer.
“It used to be that these young people would find an exit at the age of 24 or 25 but austerity, poverty and the cost of living has closed down various exit routes, and many remain members until they are 30/31.
“Traditionally things like getting a job, an apprenticeship or getting married and having kids would see gang members leave, but austerity has seen all the guardians who might have helped people pull away, like teachers, social workers, youth projects, reduce the amount of what they can do or shut down altogether.
“When I’ve asked young men why they don’t go and get a job at Costa or something they just laugh in my face. They are earning as much as £1,000 a week and, for some people gangs offer them their most successful trajectory in life - drugs, girls, fame, fortune, status, respect and money.”
He fears weapons used in Ukraine’s war with Russia will end up in the hands of UK gangsters when the conflict ends.
Dr Harding said: “Firearms are still quite hard to come by in Britain but that could change once the Ukraine war has concluded.
“There will be a flood of firearms across Europe, like there was after the Yugoslav conflict ended in 2001. That was the last big spike of guns in Britain.
“They will be much more available and traded by organised crime gangs and ex-soldiers and eventually find their way onto the underground market.”
Cops are waging a constant battle with gangs.
Dozens of guns have been taken off West Midland's streets and organised criminals put behind bars since the force set up a new major crime unit 18 months ago.
The team were behind the jailing of funeral wake shooter Meshaq Berryman.
They nailed a second drive-by shooter who used a Skorpion submachine gun - a military weapon capable of firing 800 rounds per minute.
Usman Khan, 22, of Birmingham was jailed 30 years for the attempted murder of a man in Saltley, two miles from the city centre, in April 2023.
Last year police recovered 152 guns across the region - up 121 from the previous year.
IT has seen a reduction in firearms discharges from 126 in 2022 to 92 this year.
Det Supt Ryan Chambers, who oversees the teams, said: “We’ve had a really successful period of targeting serious and organised crime in the West Midlands.
“We proactively target criminal gangs through our work to seek out those who use violence and intimidation, and when we’ve had major incidents that have resulted in people being seriously injured on the streets of the West Midlands, we’ve acted swiftly and decisively to investigate and put those responsible behind bars for years to come.
“The new way of working which came into place at the start of last year means we’ve got dedicated resources to quickly review CCTV, mobile phone and forensic evidence.
“But we’re also working really closely with local policing areas to understand the community impact and gather information and intelligence.”
