The Delhi Police has done a major crackdown against different criminal gangs active in the national capital and neighbouring states by arresting a total of 16 gang members of different criminal gangs during a recent drive.

According to the police on Saturday, a surge in the criminal activity of organised gangs was noticed. “Since then, the Special Cell has been working relentlessly to pursue these crime syndicates in order to avert the dangerous situation that poses a threat to the law and order of the city. During the course of hunting down the crime syndicate barons, a large network of intelligence was invoked, and teams were briefed and deployed strategically for dismantling the nefarious network of dreaded gangs which are being operated from foreign based gang leaders and the ones lodged in jail,” the DCP Special Cell Amit Kaushik said.

A total of 10 Pistols and 56 live cartridges were recovered while heinous crime including murders and firing for extortion was averted by the crackdown. “During this drive to neutralise the threat posed by organised gangs, monitoring was done through technical means to identify the means of communication since most of the surge in these criminal activities has its origin through foreign soil and generates potential intelligence,” the DCP said.

He added that during the drive it was noticed that gang leaders who have settled abroad in supposedly safe havens or incarcerated in different jails recruit juveniles and young boys without prior records or involved in minor cases to avoid detection.

“While three of the arrested persons are shooters the other two of them including a woman were engaged in recruiting gang members through social media and passing on instruction to the shooters on behalf of gang leaders and they also arrange weapons,” said an officer who arrested three gang members.

Social media and popular songs glamorising gang life attract more youth to join their gang members lodged in different jails in India or settled abroad.

“The gangsters usually lure these youths with immature minds in incidents of firing and even murders and later dump them for they easily manage to find more such youth available for exploitation,” the DCP added.