Serial offender and notorious London gang leader, Joland Giwa, 36, has been jailed again after repeated failed attempts by the Home Office to deport him to either Nigeria or Sierra Leone failed.
Dubbed ‘The General’, Giwa was caught with around £17,000 worth of drugs when police raided his home in Risca, South Wales.
Giwa grew up terrorising the streets of Croydon as part of the ‘Don’t Say Nothing’ gang, or ‘DSN’ for short, after arriving in the UK aged ten.
The 36-year-old arrived in the UK when he was just 10 and he is believed to be from either Nigeria or Sierra Leone.
However, the Home Office has been unable to deport him because neither country will take him.
Officials instead decided that Giwa would be sent to Newport, in Wales, to cut him off from his criminal connections in London.
Giwa was sentenced to 27 months in February 2009 after committing a string of robberies and thefts.
It is understood that police had been seeking to speak to Giwa in connection with an unrelated matter. However, upon noticing officers, he fled into the property and attempted to evade capture by hiding in an upstairs cupboard.
Aerial footage released by police shows Giwa’s vehicle travelling through a residential area before performing a three-point turn and doubling back
The car is then seen parking outside a large building. Two individuals exit the vehicle, the passenger retrieving two bags from the rear while the other stands by the driver’s door. Both are later seen walking into a nearby property.
The footage then cuts to body-worn camera video of officers inside the address, where they call for Giwa to come out of hiding. He is subsequently discovered in a cupboard and arrested, repeatedly asking officers: “What is this about?”
A sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court on Friday April 10, heard that Giwa was found in possession of drugs worth approximately £17,000 at the property where he had been living.
The court was told Giwa had previously led an 80-strong gang in south London, linked to a period of significant violence in Croydon in 2017, including stabbings, shootings and murder.
Giwa pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply crack cocaine, heroin and cocaine, as well as possession of criminal property. He was sentenced to three years and 11 months in prison.
