An international manhunt is underway to find a fugitive crime boss who is wanted for the murder of a man suspected to be behind a shooting in east London that left a nine-year-old girl fighting for her life.
The young girl was dining with her family in Kingsland High Street, Hackney, last May when a helmeted gunman riding a stolen motorbike fired five shots towards the restaurant she was in.
It’s believed the young girl may have been in the crossfire of two rivals gangs known as the Tottenham Turks and the Hackney Bombacilar, which means bombers in Turkish.
There have been more than 35 major flare-ups between the two gangs of Turkish thugs – including 20 shootings and numerous murders in past two decades.
Javon Reily, 32, of Farnborough, Hampshire, is facing trial at the Old Bailey in the summer after he denied four counts of attempted murder in relation to May’s Hackney shooting.
Now a major search is underway for the killer of a senior member of the Tottenham Turks, Izzet Eren, who was shot and killed sitting outside a cafe in Chisinau, Moldova last summer.
Rival crime boss Kemal Armagan, of the Hackney Bombers, is thought to be connected to his death and is already wanted for two other murders.
Eren was killed five weeks after the nine-year-old girl, who lives in Birmingham, was hit in the head by a stray bullet during a drive-by attack.
Tottenham Turks leader Izzet Eren (pictured), who was shot and killed sitting outside a cafe in Chisinau, Moldova last summer
Forensic officers picturedDalston, north east London, near to the scene of a shooting at Kingsland High Street, Hackney, on May 30
The motorcycle thought to be involved in the shooting
In an emotional statement her parents said: ‘She only went there for ice cream and now we do not know if we will ever get our daughter back to being the smart, funny girl that she was before and whether she will be able to ever speak or move properly again.’
Eren, it is believed, may have been behind an attempt to kill three rivals from the Hackney-based gang as they sat outside the Turkish restaurant in Dalston.
According to reports, three men suffered gunshot wounds had links to the Bombacilar clan. One was understood to have recently been released from jail and was wearing an electronic tag on his leg as part of the terms of his probation.
The intended target, Beytullah Gunduz, 37, left the restaurant moments before the attack but was previously the victim of a hit when he was shot in the neck by a Tottenham Turks assassin.
In a suspected revenge attack, Eren died instantly when he was shot three times in the head on July 7 in Moldova’s capital Chisinau.
He had been on an Interpol wanted list on suspicion of trafficking heroin, the Interior Ministry said.
The murder in broad daylight was ‘carefully planned’ over several days, prosecutor Victor Furtuna told the Mirror.
The gunman allegedly flew to Moldova two weeks prior with an accomplice before they were met by the girlfriend of one of the men who acted as their diver, Mr Furtuna said.
Police forensic officers outside Evin restaurant, where a horror drive-by shooting took place
CCTV captures moment the hitman on a stolen motorbike targets three men in Dalston
They are believed to have visited a number firing ranges around the city as they spent time monitoring their target.
After killing Eren at 11.31am, the gunman dumped his getaway bike in a nearby wooded area before getting into a rented car.
He then allegedly fled over the border using a fake passport to get into Romania hours later.
British citizen Toper Hassan, a former solicitor, is accused of being among the accomplices.
He appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday as he fights extradition to Moldova, where he is charged with the murder. He was arrested by National Crime Agency officers and was later remanded in custody.
The feud between the two gangs is believed to have started after with an attack on Armagan in a snooker hall in Tottenham in 2009.
The subsequent gang war has led to dozens of murders and violent incidents from North London to Turkey.
Armagan, who ‘cannot at present be found’, is also wanted for the murder of innocent shopkeeper Ahmet Paytak, 50, who was gunned down inside the Euro Food and Wines store in Hornsey Road, north London, in March 2009.
Forensic officers pictured outside Evin restaurant, where a horror drive-by shooting took place
A young girl was caught in the hail of bullets, with one said to have lodged in her head
Shocking CCTV footage shows the moment a hitman on a stolen motorbike targets three men outside a Turkish restaurant
The killer, Ricardo Dwyer had been hired by the Hackney Bombacilars for the murder of a Tottenham Turks leader but shot the wrong target.
Mr Paytak and his son, who was hit in the leg, had no part in either gang and were ‘truly in the wrong place at the wrong time’, the Old Bailey heard.
Later that year, in Tottenham, north London Oktay Erbasli, 23, a prominent member of the Tottenham Turks was shot dead as he waited at traffic lights in his Range Rover when a hitman on a motorbike linked to the Bombacilar gang pulled up alongside him and opened fire.
As tit for tat attacks continued, not all of them reported to police, in 2011 two men stormed into a Turkish social club in Clapton, east London armed with Uzi sub machine guns. Innocent bystander Cem Duzgun, 21, who had gone there to play snooker, died in a hail of bullets.
The feud continued to escalate as his Armagan’s brother Ali Armagan, 32, was killed in 2012 after being shot in the neck at close range as he sat in his custom-built Audi A8 limo near Turnpike Lane tube station, North London.
Moldovan prosecutors say Armagan immediately ‘declared war’ following his brother’s death.
Eren’s brother, Kemal Eren, who is nicknamed Parmaksiz, which means ‘No Fingers’ is still wanted in connection to the murder after fleeing the UK in the same year.
Just weeks prior, Zafer Eren, 34, believed to be a cousin of the gangster killed in Moldova, was shot dead in Southgate, north London.
Tottenham Turks members shot and killed Ali Armagan (pictured) in 2012, a high ranking Bombacilar’s member as he sat in his in his custom-built Audi A8 limousine outside Turnpike Lane underground station
Another Tottenham Turks leader, Kemal Eren who is nicknamed Parmaksiz, which means ‘No Fingers’ fled the UK in 2012 after the killing of Ali Armagan
Izzet Eren was jailed in London for 21 years in 2015 for being armed with a submachine gun to murder a rival. He was moved to a jail in Turkey in August 2019 but escaped a month later.
Police then traced him Moldova, where he was arrested in 2022, but he was reportedly freed, while the Met launched an extradition case. He was killed two years later.
The Bombacilar mob has acquired a fearsome reputation and is run by the Baybasin brothers, who are simply referred to by locals as ‘the family.’
They originate from Lice, south-east Turkey, where they became involved in the drugs trade in the early 1970s by bringing heroin from Afghanistan and processing it on their ancestral lands for sale in the west.
The operation at the time was led by eldest brother Huseyin Baybasin, 67, who has been called the ‘Pablo Escobar of Europe’ and nicknamed ‘the Emperor.’ From rural Turkey, he expanded the family’s drug empire to Amsterdam, Morocco and Gibraltar and claimed to be working with senior Turkish politicians and customs officials.
He is currently serving a life sentence in the Netherlands after convictions for drug trafficking and conspiracy to murder in 2001.
Following his conviction, the family business was taken over by his younger brother, Abdullah Baybasin, 64 who is confined to a wheelchair after being shot in the spine by a rival.
According to reports, he worked as an informant for UK Customs and M15, providing information about senior Turkish politicians involved in the drug trade. In return for this, he was allowed to move to Britain in the mid 1990s along with other high-ranking associates and was eventually granted political asylum.
The founder of the Hackney Bombers is Abdullah Baybasin, who uses a wheelchair after being shot by a rival in the 1980s
Turkish drug baron Huseyin Baybasin (right) is currently serving a life sentence in the Netherlands after convictions for drug trafficking and conspiracy to murder in 2001
But embarrassingly for the British officials, their prized informant based himself within the north London Turkish community and waged a reign of terror, recruiting young thugs known as ‘The Bombacilar’ [bombers] to extort businesses and gain control of the drugs trade.
At one point, Abdullah and his brothers, who originate from southeast Turkey, were said to be controlling 90 per cent of the UK’s heroin market.
He ran his operation from a shop in Hackney but lived in a lavish detached home he jointly bought with them in the affluent Canons Drive Estate of Edgware, north London, which they still own.
The Baybasins also extended their reach beyond London, supplying class A drugs to gangs in other cities.
Mehmet Baybasin, 59 is currently serving a 30-year prison sentence after being convicted at Liverpool Crown Court in 2011 for trying to import a 40-tonne shipment of cocaine into the UK with a Merseyside gang.
Abdullah was jailed for 22 years in 2006 after admitting blackmail and perverting the course of justice and a further 10 years, to run consecutively, after being found guilty of drugs smuggling.
He was cleared following a retrial at Woolwich Crown Court after a judge ruled the lack of prosecution evidence meant that a conviction would be unsafe. He has recently been photographed in Spain.
Over the years, the feud has led deadly clashes with their main rivals the Tottenham Turks which has reportedly resulted in more than 20 murders and a series of kidnappings and other brutal acts of violence.
One of the Tottenham Turks former leaders was Hayri Goztas (pictured) who was the ‘godfather’ of one of Britain’s biggest drug smuggling operations
The brutal killing of a Turkish radio DJ called Koray Alpergin (pictured) last year is also believed to be behind the gang feud
The head of the vicious mob Bombacilar was previously his brother, Huseyin Baybasin (pictured), 67, who has been called the ‘Pablo Escobar of Europe’. Anothe brother, Mehmet, 59 is currently serving a 30-year prison sentence after being convicted at Liverpool Crown Court in 2011
One of the Tottenham Turks former leaders was Hayri Goztas, who behind the facade of a hardworking cafe owner in Green Lanes, north London was the ‘godfather’ of one of Britain’s biggest drug smuggling operations. He was known as ‘Aga’ or Turkish for leader.
In 2012 he was convicted to 16 years imprisonment for importing up to £1 million worth of heroin per week following a National Crime Squad undercover operation. Despite a judge ordering that he be deported after his sentence, Turkish community sources claim that he has now been released and remains in the UK.
One of the most high-profile incidents in the on-going violence took place in December 2015 outside Wood Green Crown Court, north London when police shot and killed a Tottenham Turks member during a failed attempt to free two senior members of the gang who were about to appear in court.
The brutal killing of a Turkish radio DJ last year is also believed to have contributed the feud. Mehmet Koray Alpergin and his girlfriend Gozde Dalbudak were kidnapped in central London last October.
Mr Alpergin, 43, was beaten, throttled, burned and stabbed before his body was dumped in an Essex woodland.
Two men were found guilty of his killing last December with the court told that ‘international organised crime’ was at the heart of the case.
