Gangster convicted of machinegun attack

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.