The kingpin former boss of a crime gang linked to a shooting that has left a nine-year-old girl fighting for her life has been cleared for release from prison.
Huseyin Baybasin, 67, became known as “Europe’s Pablo Escobar” when he masterminded the export of vast quantities of heroin while leading the Hackney Bombers organised crime group.
Shots fired at a Turkish restaurant in the East London borough last week were reportedly aimed at leading members of the Bombers, who have been involved in a long running feud with their rivals, the Tottenham Turks.
It has reportedly led to more than 20 murders and a series of kidnappings as the rivals fight for control over the drugs trade, racketeering operations and political funding in Turkey.
The latest suspected victim, who was having dinner with her family when she was hit in the head, remains in a critical condition following the drive-by shooting last Wednesday, Det Chief Supt James Conway said.
Speaking a week after the attack, Mr Conway revealed today that a “critical line of enquiry” is a possible link to “Turkish-originating” organised crime networks.
He said: “Our young victim remains in a critical condition. Specialist family liaison officers continue to support her family through this terribly difficult time and our thoughts remain with her and her family. It is very clear that this attack has had a devastating impact on the family.”
The girl reportedly moved with her parents from a village in Kerala, southwest India, to Birmingham. Her grandmother told Indian media that her son’s only child had been shot while they were visiting friends in London.
She said her granddaughter was on a ventilator and surgeons were unable to remove the bullet during the initial attempt a day after the attack. Doctors are believed to be waiting until swelling in her head subsided before making a second attempt.
“We are praying to god for her survival and full recovery,” said the grandmother. Three men, aged 26, 37 and 42, sitting outside the Evin restaurant were also shot by the hitman, riding a stolen Ducati Monster motorbike.
One was reportedly a suspected member of the Hackney Bombers who was previously the victim of a gangland hit when he was shot in the neck by a suspected Tottenham Turks hitman.
The Bombers, or Bombacilar as they are known in Turkish, acquired a fearsome reputation when it was run by Baybasin and two brothers, known as “The Family”.
Huseyin was arrested in Holland while his brother Abdullah, 64, who was confined to a wheelchair after being shot by a rival in the 1980s, arrived in Britain via Gibraltar in 1997.
Third brother Mehmet, 60, worked with Liverpool gangs to import vast quantities of cocaine into the UK from Latin America. Mehmet, who lived in Edgware, Middlesex, travelled to South America regularly for meetings with representatives of Colombian and Venezuelan cartels.
He is currently serving a 30-year sentence in Whitemoor prison, Cambs, for attempting to import 40 tonnes of cocaine after he was jailed in Liverpool in 2011.
Huseyin, a Kurd, has been in custody in Holland since 1998, and has now been cleared to work on his return to society by the Advisory Board for Long-Term Sentences.
His lawyer Adele van der Plas has said another European country has agreed to take him but would not reveal which.
Ms van der Plas said the Lelystad prison where he is being held, has failed to give her client lessons in Dutch and computing that he needs to be cleared for day release.
Baybasin, whose wife and son live in the family’s Edgware home, was sentenced to life in prison for complicity in murders, drug trafficking and participation in a criminal organisation.
The brothers became involved in the drugs trade in the early 70s by bringing heroin from Afghanistan and processing it on their ancestral lands for sale in the west.
The gang feud’s origins first appeared following a fight in a club in January 2009 during which a Hackney Bomber was badly beaten up. Two months later Ahmet Paytak, 50, died and his 21-year-old son was injured when four shots were fired into Euro Wines and Food store in Holloway, North London.
Hitman Ricardo Dwyer had been hired by the Bombers for the murder of a Tottenham Turks leader but shot the wrong target. Dwyer was jailed for life.
The same year Oktay Erbasli, 23, was murdered in October 2009 as he drove in Tottenham when a biker pulled up beside him and opened fire.
Mr Erbasli, said to have been a member of the Tottenham Turks, was shot in the head in front of a five-year-old boy. Cem Duzgun was blasted in the head, body, arms and legs as he played a game of pool with his friends at Clapton Football Club in Hackney, east London. The Old Bailey later heard that Mr Duzgan was killed in revenge, though he was not thought to be the intended target.
Ali Armagan was shot and killed in February 2012 as he sat in his Audi A8 limousine outside Turnpike Lane tube station in north London. Two men, said to be members of the Hackney Bombers, were later cleared of murder.
Kemel Eren, said to be the leader of the Tottenham Turks and known as ‘No Fingers’, fled the UK, but was shot and paralysed in Elbistan, Turkey shortly afterward.
The Hackney Bombers then hired Jamie Marsh-Smith to murder Zafer Eren. Marsh-Smith put on a Guy Fawkes-style mask and shot Zafer in the back as he walked into his home in Southgate, north London, in April, 2013.
Marsh-Smith escaped in the back of a burgundy Peugeot 308 driven by Samuel Zerei. Four days after that attack, Marsh-Smith shot Zerei in Tottenham, fearing he would “blabber”. Marsh-Smith, of Manor House, north London, was convicted of murder and two counts of attempted murder.
He was jailed for life with a minimum of 38 years. Zerei, of Newington Green, north London, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 28 years.
One of the most notorious incidents happened in December 2015 outside Wood Green Crown Court, north London during a bungled prison break. The attempt to free Tottenham Turk Izzet Eren as he was being driven in a custody van was thwarted by police who had bugged their car.
When armed officers swooped, Jermaine Baker, 28, of Tottenham, was shot dead. Eren, 33, who arranged for the gang to spring him from the van, was serving 14 years after he was caught carrying a loaded pistol and a machine gun in north London while allegedly on his way to carry out a shooting.
His cousin Ozcan Eren, 32, was jailed for the attempt to free his relative. The violence appears to have been reignited again in late 2022. Turkish DJ Mehmet Koray Alpergin, 43, was tortured in an empty wine bar close to Tottenham Hotspur’s stadium. Mr Alpergin, 43, was beaten, throttled, burned and stabbed before his body was dumped in an Essex woodland.
Anyone with information can call 101 or 020 8345 3865 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or via crimestoppers-uk.org.