Eaton Leonard 'Leon' Green (born 21 September 1967)[1][2] was a Yardie gang member involved in armed robbery, drug dealing and extortion in South London. The first Yardie to become a police informant for the Metropolitan Police, his later testimony during his 1997 deportation hearing would reveal police protection for his criminal activities by immigration and intelligence officers of the Drug Related Violence and Intelligence Unit, which included false passports to allow accomplices Cecil and Rohan Thomas known killers (killed at least 10 people) and members of the Black Roses crew into the country [3][4] as well as securing residency rights due to his marriage to a British woman under questionable circumstances.[5]
Biography
editFleeing Jamaica on murder charges, he emigrated to the United Kingdom and eventually settled in Brixton in February 1991 where he began dealing crack and cocaine. Within three months, he had been arrested on drugs and weapons charges and recruited by Steve Barker to become an informant soon after his arrest. His arrest on 8 July 1993, for the armed robbery of 150 people during a blues party in Nottingham the previous month, one of the largest committed in British history, would cause a scandal for the Home Office as Green had been a paid informant at the time of his arrest.[6] His "handler", immigration officer Steve Barker, allegedly attempted to protect Green from prosecution by Nottingham authorities.[7] In September 1995, he pleaded guilty and was convicted of armed robbery, possession of firearms [8] and unlawful wounding[9] by the Leeds Crown Court. He had shot one of the male guests in the foot during the robbery, allegedly to allay suspicions that he was an informer,[10] but his sentence was reduced due to cooperating with the prosecution in a previous trial.[11]
After serving six years in prison, efforts to avoid deportation by his charge that he had been told by Metropolitan intelligence officers that he would be under the protection of the DRVIU failed and was eventually deported following his deportation trial on 10 July 1997.[12]
Following his release from prison, he applied for asylum on the basis that he would be killed as an informant if returned to Jamaica,[13] which apparently was denied and he was reportedly repatriated to Jamaica in 1999.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Eaton Leonard Green (Hansard, 22 November 1995)". api.parliament.uk. Archived from the original on 13 November 2022. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
- ^ "Eaton Green – the Yardie grass who was allowed to commit crime – Nick Davies". Archived from the original on 13 November 2022. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
- ^ "Police to Change Use of Yardie Informers". The Independent. 7 July 1998
- ^ World In Action The Informer TV Documentary 1995
- ^ Black Flag (March 1999). "Drugs and Guns". Black Flag #218. Blackened.net. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 7 December 2006.
- ^ British Broadcasting Corporation (19 July 1999). "Who are the Yardies?". BBC News. Archived from the original on 17 December 2003. Retrieved 30 April 2009.
- ^ Black Flag (July 1997). "Scotland Yardies (about police involvement in drugs and crime)". Black Flag #212. Blackened.net. Archived from the original on 16 July 2006.
- ^ "Police face no charges over Yardie informer who killed". The Guardian. 16 July 1999. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
- ^ "Top Policeman Defends Handling of Yardie Case". Press Association. 14 Sep 1995
- ^ "'I Was Set Up', Yardie Tells Judge". Press Association. 4 October 1995
- ^ "Yardie grass jailed". The Independent. 4 October 1995
- ^ Davies, Nick (16 February 1999). "Police damned over Yardie chaos: A 20-month inquiry confirms Guardian reports about how Jamaican informers carried on a guns and drugs crime spree". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 6 March 2017. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
- ^ "Yardie Supergrass Will Be Deported Back To Jamaica". Birmingham Post. 10 July 1999