A notorious gang
‘general’ who poses a ‘serious threat to the public’ could be back on Britain’s
streets within months because ministers have failed to have him deported.
Joland Giwa, whose street name is Dexter, led a campaign of terror on the streets of Croydon, South London, and is ready ‘at any time to use knives and weapons’, police say.
He was thought to be from Nigeria or Sierra Leone, but both countries refuse to accept he is one of theirs and linguists have now said he has a strong London accent, despite finding that he used English spoken in Nigeria.
In a gangster-style YouTube video, he is seen boasting about having stabbed a man ‘in the f****** head’ and threatening to attack other gangs who intrude on his territory.
He has been held since 2009 when he finished a jail sentence, but immigration officials have failed to secure him a passport because of the two African countries' refusal.
Yesterday a judge ruled that immigration officials had three months to get him travel documents and if they failed Giwa should be released.
Joland Giwa, whose street name is Dexter, led a campaign of terror on the streets of Croydon, South London, and is ready ‘at any time to use knives and weapons’, police say.
He was thought to be from Nigeria or Sierra Leone, but both countries refuse to accept he is one of theirs and linguists have now said he has a strong London accent, despite finding that he used English spoken in Nigeria.
In a gangster-style YouTube video, he is seen boasting about having stabbed a man ‘in the f****** head’ and threatening to attack other gangs who intrude on his territory.
He has been held since 2009 when he finished a jail sentence, but immigration officials have failed to secure him a passport because of the two African countries' refusal.
Yesterday a judge ruled that immigration officials had three months to get him travel documents and if they failed Giwa should be released.
Giwa,
24, is the self-proclaimed ‘general’ in charge of the Don’t Say Nothing gang –
known as DSN – with a string of convictions for theft and robbery.
In 2007, the DSN gang was behind a surge in violence on the streets of Croydon which saw stabbings, shootings and murder, police say. Officers linked Giwa to at least 99 incidents of criminal or anti-social behaviour.
Giwa landed at Heathrow aged 10 on a flight from Nigeria with his twin brother but no parent or guardian, in 1999.
He had no identity documents and claimed asylum on the spot, telling officials he was from Sierra Leoneand his parents were killed in the civil war in that country.
He claimed a stranger had rescued him and his brother and put them on a plane. His asylum claim was refused but he was given permission to stay for four years, before permanent leave was granted in 2005.
By then he already had a conviction for handling stolen goods, and over the next four years he committed a string of robberies and thefts which resulted in a 27-month jail term in February 2009. Time served meant he was due for release later that year. At the time, he posted a picture on Facebook of himself in his cell, taken on a smuggled mobile phone. An internet post said he would be ‘touching road real soon’.
But instead he was held in an immigration centre as officials tried to kick him out of the UK. In March 2011 he was transferred to high security Belmarsh prison after intelligence suggested he was involved in smuggling drugs into the detention centre.
His brother Make was jailed for trying to smuggle heroin and sim cards in to Belmarsh last year.
Meanwhile, both Nigeria and Sierra Leone have refused to recognise him as a national of their country or to give him a passport.
After interviewing him in 2010 the Sierra Leone High Commission said the ‘tribe he mentioned is not aSierra Leone tribe’ – and claimed he was Nigerian. But the Nigerian High Commission says he isn’tNigerian.
In 2007, the DSN gang was behind a surge in violence on the streets of Croydon which saw stabbings, shootings and murder, police say. Officers linked Giwa to at least 99 incidents of criminal or anti-social behaviour.
Giwa landed at Heathrow aged 10 on a flight from Nigeria with his twin brother but no parent or guardian, in 1999.
He had no identity documents and claimed asylum on the spot, telling officials he was from Sierra Leoneand his parents were killed in the civil war in that country.
He claimed a stranger had rescued him and his brother and put them on a plane. His asylum claim was refused but he was given permission to stay for four years, before permanent leave was granted in 2005.
By then he already had a conviction for handling stolen goods, and over the next four years he committed a string of robberies and thefts which resulted in a 27-month jail term in February 2009. Time served meant he was due for release later that year. At the time, he posted a picture on Facebook of himself in his cell, taken on a smuggled mobile phone. An internet post said he would be ‘touching road real soon’.
But instead he was held in an immigration centre as officials tried to kick him out of the UK. In March 2011 he was transferred to high security Belmarsh prison after intelligence suggested he was involved in smuggling drugs into the detention centre.
His brother Make was jailed for trying to smuggle heroin and sim cards in to Belmarsh last year.
Meanwhile, both Nigeria and Sierra Leone have refused to recognise him as a national of their country or to give him a passport.
After interviewing him in 2010 the Sierra Leone High Commission said the ‘tribe he mentioned is not aSierra Leone tribe’ – and claimed he was Nigerian. But the Nigerian High Commission says he isn’tNigerian.
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