Pitsmoor Shotta Boys: South Yorkshire gang branded themselves with tattoos & bandanas - doing cops a favour

"Organised crime groups don't necessarily want to bring attention upon themselves, so why would they brand themselves," a senior police officer has said, after revealing one South Yorkshire gang went to great lengths to do just the opposite - inadvertently helping police to catch them.

Detective Superintendent with South Yorkshire Police Jamie Henderson said members of the Pitsmoor Shotta Boys (PSB), which, despite the name, has operated in Mexborough, near Doncaster for years, would let those around them know they were linked to the organised crime group (OCG) by 'getting tattoos or wearing a certain type of bandana'.

Despite there being between '60 and 70 mapped OCGs' currently operating across the county, Det Supt Henderson said South Yorkshire Police has only had one 'recent experience' in the force of successfully securing a gang injunction - which are civil powers that seek to disrupt and break down such groups.

And that success was with the PSB in 2020, after the self-identification of members helped to satisfy the courts of their existence in the area.

Det Supt Henderson, who is the head of serious and organised crime and firearms lead for the force, explained: “Whereas, lots of other organised crime groups don't necessarily want to bring attention upon themselves, so why would they brand themselves? And the branding of themselves [as the PSB] was one of the reasons that we were able to get gang injunction notices on that group back in 2020."

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"Gang injunctions not easy to come by. We have to satisfy the court in relation to a number of strict stipulations, but we managed to do that in relation to the PSB and get some really strict controls over there over those individuals around where they could move, it really curtails their movements around certain areas that they're allowed to socialise in, and curfews. Also business interests, all those sorts of things that we managed to secure.”

Gang injunctions are among a myriad of methods used by the force, and partnership agencies, over a protracted period to bring members of the PSB to justice.

In November 2023 and January 2024, two members of the PSB were jailed for a combined total of 12 years, two months for firearms offences.

Jahmaine Watson was jailed for seven years, two months, after his DNA was found on a converted revolver seized during a raid of a property in Denaby, near Doncaster, in December 2022.

The judge, Recorder Adrian Langdale KC, told Sheffield Crown Court that defendant Jahmaine Watson, formerly of Northumberland Lane, Denaby Main, had been ‘entrenched’ in a ‘criminal lifestyle’ and gang culture, after becoming a member of the PSB at a young age. The court heard how Watson, then aged 34, received his first firearms convictions 20 years earlier - when he was just 14 years old.

Following Watson’s conviction, a South Yorkshire Police spokesperson confirmed the DNA of another man - Taylor Blackburn - was also found on one of the weapons following the warrant executed at the Denaby home in December 2022.

In November 2023, Blackburn, then aged 24, of Bosville Street, Rotherham, was charged with possession of a prohibited firearm and jailed for five years at Sheffield Crown Court.

Det Supt Henderson added: "I used to be the superintendent in charge of investigations in Doncaster before I took up this role and the PSB in particular were a real community entrenched OCG that caused havoc within that community. But the hard work of the partnership has really dismantled that group so gang injunction notices, key individuals being convicted for drug supply and firearms possession."