A new investigation has uncovered that Boombox, a former Hip Hop record store in North London, was actually operated by undercover cops as part of a sting operation.
Dubbed “Operation Peyzac,” the half-a-million-pound sting — which was revealed in a detailed report by Vice on Monday (November 21) — was in an effort to control guns and violence in the area – and Metro Police wired the recording studio in the back with CCTV to do so.
According to a 2016 Daily Mail report, the operation put 37 alleged “armed criminals” and drug dealers behind bars for a cumulative total of 400 years. Vice reports the majority were Black and between the ages of 16 and 41.
“The undercover officers sought to portray themselves as having unspecified criminal links in order to infiltrate relevant persons to gather evidence on their levels of criminality,” Abbas Nawrozzadeh, a senior consultant solicitor at Eldwick Law, told Vice: “This was one of the largest undercover operations in London in recent years.”
Nawrozzadeh served as the defense lawyer for a 19-year-old Black man arrested in the sting, and noted how his client looked up to the undercover officers and thought they were going to help him.
“Our client, like many of the other defendants, looked up to the undercover officers as ‘olders,'” Nawrozzadeh said, “experienced and credentialed, including with regard to criminal ties, music producers who were able to make them famous.”
Former Merseyside Police Detective Superintendent Richard Carr was also interviewed for the piece, and said that while undercover work is still helpful, it needs to be done ethically.
“I think that undercover policing has got a vital part to play in policing,” Carr said. But it’s got to be done ethically and proportionally. You’ve got to play by the rules. It all needs to be authorized. Some of these may be innocent people who have been entrapped. And I don’t know whether that’s the case [here], but what it doesn’t mean is that undercover policing is ineffective.”
omg the posed for a photo???? lemme dm tmz. you narrative of police are bad is killing the black community. keep teaching YT po-lice man is bad so you can make more headlines of a cop killed a black guy. yall ARE THE WORST. the biggest culprit to black growth is blacks.
no cares about your stupid opinion. on here every day with some triumphant anti black nonsense. what is the end game? mass shooting? don’t know what your issue is and you are better off dead if you can’t go a day without thinking that a black man’s failure somehow equates to your success. it equates to me doing amother 50 pushups know I can rip a man throat out his neck with my bare hands unlike 5 years ago when boys started becoming proud. good day
you and real talk work at hiphopdx which is why you are on every article. we will see you and discuss this issue with your site.
That’s why you better off dead 😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣
US grant starts to shake when he see a black man. Shaking and scared to see a black man. A person that could be your friend. give you a joke to keep your day light. you have your head down in your phone shaking posting rude and stupid comments thinking you won something. you lost at life. even I won’t be around for you much longer
If it works, fuck it why not ? Maybe we can do it in the US with smoke shops or barber shops.
HAhaha, literally: I never knew hustlers confessed in stereo (Jeru the adaja- ya playin yaself)
Rap snitches, telling all your business………
Don’t do the crime if you can’t sit the time.