Gangster convicted of machinegun attack

A gangster who carried out a sub-machinegun attack on two rivals was facing jail today after being found guilty of attempted murder.

Yusuf Arslan, 20, tried to kill the men in Tottenham last September as Turkish drug gangs fought a bloody war over control of the north London heroin trade in which at least three people were killed.

A month later shop worker Cem Duzgun, 21, died in a hail of bullets after he left a club in Clapton. His killing is believed to have been revenge for the murder three days earlier of suspected gangster Oktay Erbasli, 23.

Arslan, who survived a shooting in 2007, was convicted of two counts of attempted murder and two firearms offences at Kingston crown court. A jury heard how two men were driving along Lansdowne Road at 11.30pm on 30 September last year when the road was blocked by a silver Vauxhall Corsa. Arslan leapt out and sprayed the car with bullets, injuring one of the men.

Three months later Arslan was arrested with a converted Brocock snubnose revolver as he left a massage parlour in Walthamstow with Emre Kamalak, 24. Both men were wearing bullet proof vests and had booked a mini-cab in a false name to take them to a series of addresses.

Detectives believe the pair — who were associated with a gang called the Tottenham Boys — were looking for rivals from the Bombacilar gang.