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Kemal Armagan has been held in the port of Izmir after being hunted for years for three killings, including the 2009 UK murder of a shopkeeper and the fatal shooting of a rival gangster in Moldova
A crime boss linked to a UK shooting that left a nine-year-old girl fighting for her life has been arrested in Turkey.
Kemal Armagan was wanted for the murder of a rival gangster suspected of plotting last May’s drive-by attack, in which the girl was hit in the head by a stray bullet. Five weeks later, Izzet Eren was shot dead by a masked assassin outside a cafe in Moldova.
The Mirror revealed last month that Armagan is suspected of killing Eren in a tit-for-tat attack after the girl was injured as she sat in a Turkish restaurant in Dalston, East London. The youngster, from Birmingham, was enjoying a meal with her parents when a gunman on a Ducati motorbike opened fire. In a statement, her parents said: “She only went there for ice cream and now we do not know if she will be able to ever speak or move properly again.”
Eren, 41, is believed to have been a senior member of a violent North London criminal organisation known as the Tottenham Turks. Armagan, who was already wanted for two other murders, is a leader of the rival Hackney Bombers.
The intended target of the Dalston shooting was believed to be a member of Armagan’s clan who had survived a previous attack from the Tottenham Turks. Armagan is understood to have been held in the Aegean port of Izmir earlier this week after police became suspicious during a routine stop.
The gangster is facing prosecution in Turkey, but he is also wanted by the authorities in the UK and Moldova, a law enforcement source told the Daily Mirror. Local reports identifying the suspect only as “KA” said the 43-year-old had been hiding in the city under a false identity for 10 years. Armagan, who is wanted under an Interpol red notice, has been detained.
Eren was shot in the head three times in a suspected revenge killing on July 7 in Moldova’s capital Chisinau. The Interior Ministry said the victim was on an Interpol wanted list on suspicion of trafficking heroin. Moldovan prosecutor Victor Furtuna has said the gunman flew into the country with an alleged accomplice two weeks before the murder.
They are suspected of hiring a flat near the murder scene and monitoring Eren’s movements from the balcony. The gunman bought the getaway bike with cash, Mr Furtuna said. After shooting Eren at 11.31am, the killer dumped the electric bike in a wooded area and got into a rented car. He allegedly crossed the border into Romania hours later using a fake passport, and flew on to Bergamo, Italy. It was not known where he went from there.
British citizen Toper Hassan, a former solicitor who was struck off in 2013, is charged with murder in Moldova. He was arrested by National Crime Agency officers at Stansted Airport in August. The defendant appeared at Westminster magistrates court last month via video from HMP Belmarsh to confirm his name and date of birth.
He was remanded by District Judge John Bristow to re-appear for a five-day extradition hearing at a later date. The Hackney and Tottenham clans, Kurdish Turks who once dominated the heroin trade to Britain, have been at war since at least 2009. An attack on Armagan, who has 13 convictions, is said to have sparked a murderous feud.
Armagan could now face extradition to the UK for the murder of shopkeeper Ahmet Paytak, 50, who was shot in Holloway, North London, in March 2009. Both Mr Paytak and his son, who was hit in the leg, were “truly in the wrong place at the wrong time”, the Old Bailey heard.
The gunman was hired by Armagan, who was involved in a deadly feud with the Tottenham Turks, the jury was told. The rider of a motorcycle used in the attack, Michael James, was convicted of murder and is serving a life sentence. Hitman Ricardo Dwyer, 26, of Hackney, East London, also got life. Armagan, who “cannot at present be found”, had been shot and wounded two months earlier, said prosecutor Ed Brown KC.
Mr Brown told another hearing: “He vowed to exact revenge and over the next few years there were a series of attacks, escalating to murder.” Moldovan prosecutors say he had “declared war” on Eren after his brother was murdered in 2012. Ali Armagan, 32, was shot at close range as he sat in his custom-built Audi A8 near Turnpike Lane Tube station, North London.
Eren’s brother Kemal ‘NO FINGERS’ Eren is still wanted over the murder. Only a few weeks before, Zafer Eren – who was believed to be a cousin of the gangster killed in Moldova – was shot dead in Southgate, North London. Drug dealer Izzet Eren had lost an application for asylum. He was jailed in London for 21 years in 2015 for being armed with a submachine gun to murder a rival.
Eren was moved to a jail in Turkey in August 2019 but escaped a month later. He was arrested in Moldova in 2022 but reportedly freed before he could be extradited. Jermaine Baker, 28, of Tottenham, was shot dead by police outside a North London court in 2015 as Eren tried to escape. Ozcan Eren, 32, was jailed over the bid to free his cousin.
Javon Reily, 32, of Farnborough, Hants, is facing trial at the Old Bailey in the summer after he denied four counts of attempted murder in relation to May’s Dalston shooting .