For nearly a week, Middlesbrough has been gripped by a wave of violence that has left residents too intimidated to leave their homes.
‘This is terrorism,’ declared Andy McDonald, the MP for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East as he led growing calls for police to get a grip on the suspected gang violence spiralling out of control.
But for locals, postcode gangs have been terrorising the town long before Saturday’s fatal A66 crash, running county lines operations, grooming young children and fighting battles over the town’s drugs trade.
‘It’s gang warfare,’ one terrified local told the Daily Mail today. ‘This has been going on for years and years and now it’s escalated.’
A surge in violence followed the deaths of five young men – four of whom had previous convictions – after they crashed into a police car while driving the wrong way down the A66 at South Bank, near Middlesbrough, killing PCs Matthew Blades and Tom Clough.
Since then, two men, aged 31 and 23, have been arrested on suspicion of murder after seven-year-old Valentina Foster and her aunt Natalie McDonald, 34, were killed on Wednesday in a house fire in Grangetown, around one mile from the A66 crash.
And on Thursday, a house on Steele Crescent, South Bank, was rammed into by a car and a 39-year-old man was stabbed on Sedgemoor Road, Eston. Police have ruled out a link between the house fire and the A66 crash, and are probing whether the other incidents are connected.
South Bank, Grangetown and Eston, are all within the TS6 postcode of Middlesbrough, which has long been a hotspot for criminal activity.
Thugs in the area are understood to have a long-running rivalry with the neighbouring TS3 postcode, which covers estates such as Thorntree, Brambles Farm, Park End and Berwick Hills.
Members of the A66 crash gang are also believed to be linked to criminals convicted of being part of organised county line gangs in the TS3 and TS6 postcodes.
Curtis Cremin, pictured holding a huge machete, was jailed for running an organised county drugs line, in TS6 and TS3. It is understood he has links to the A66 gang
Louie Leadbeater (right), who was jailed for three years for his involvement in a county lines gang in Middlesbrough, is pictured with Cole Worthy (left), one of the five who died in the A66 crash
At least 12 armed police swoop on a residential street in Thornaby, North Yorkshire, overnight
Middlesbrough has the highest crime rate in England excluding central London, and rival criminal groups have been spreading fear among residents
Armed police on the scene of the suspected knife attack in Eston yesterday
In November last year, 19-year-old Curtis Cremin was jailed for four and a half years after being convicted of running an organised county drugs line that exploited young boys.
Cremin was found to have run a phone line that was used to advertise the sale of crack cocaine and cocaine. He groomed and exploited young teen boys to deal the drugs.
Cremin was arrested at a property on Cargo Fleet Lane, the border separating TS3 and TS6, after he was found with three other men including a 13-year-old boy. While on bail, he even set up a new drugs line.
It is understood Cremin, who has posted pictures of himself holding a machete online and mocked the police for not being able to catch him before he was arrested, knew the A66 crash gang, who he has paid tribute to on Facebook.
‘Everyone be there give them best send of [sic] they can have,’ he wrote alongside a post calling for friends to gather for a ‘balloon release’ in honour of Makai Saddington, Theo Rae and Cole Worthy.
Cremin was finally snared under a police operation codenamed Project Orme, which was launched to crack down on organised crime plaguing TS3. Cops tackling organised crime in TS3 seized cocaine, heroin and cannabis from 2,000 drug deals, 14 weapons and £22,175 in cash between November 2024 and 2025.
In February, a second criminal organisation was dismantled by police with four men –Craig Turner Snr, Craig Turner Jnr, Luke Turner and Stephen Garbutt, all convicted of drugs offences.
Louie Leadbeater, aged 18, who lived on Cargo Fleet Lane, was jailed for three years and 19-year-old Laiton Hopkins, of Cotswold Avenue, in TS3, was handed a suspended sentence.
Leadbeater is friends with Cole Worthy, one of the five killed in the A66 crash, and has posted pictures online of the pair together.
Hopkins, meanwhile, has shared tributes online to the five, posting: ‘Rest in peace lads youse will be missed big love.’
He previously mocked the police by sharing his mugshot with the caption: ‘Hahaha’.
Five thugs who were convicted after an organised crime investigation in East Middlesbrough. The three young men on the bottom row – Curtis Cremin, Louie Leadbeater and Laiton Hopkins – are said to be linked to the A66 crash gang
Makai Saddington, one of the five killed in the VW, had posted videos on TikTok of him being chased by police and was awaiting trial for racially abusing and assaulting officers
Cole Worthy (right) with his friend Theo Rae, who also died in the crash on Saturday
Jacob Matusiak, another occupant of the car which hit the officers’ patrol vehicle, also posted videos of himself driving recklessly
Police said their criminality would take place in broad daylight, mostly in playgrounds used by children as well as outside schools, while using electric and off-road bikes with their faces covered with balaclavas.
Organised crime gangs will also use the homes of vulnerable adults by forcing their way into the property to use as a drugs base, they said.
The TS3/TS6 postcode feud gained significant media attention in 2016, when police scrambled to crack down on violence after receiving reports of youths fighting and children carrying blades to school.
Locals reported seeing large gangs of youths carrying weapons, typically gathering in wasteland between the borders of the two postcodes.
Lime Road, in between Teesville in TS6 and Brambles Farm in TS3 – and the Eston recreation ground, known locally as ‘the rec’, were identified as hotspots for crime.
Residents described youths carrying hammers and metal poles and complained of their homes being targeted by rocks ‘the size of cricket balls’, Teesside Live reported at the time.
Inspector Harrison, of Cleveland Police, said at the time: ‘We believe that these fights have been arranged as part of a postcode rivalry know as ‘TS3/TS6 War’. We have had reports of weapons being involved… We’ve had also received reports that children are carrying bladed articles to school in relation to issues between rival postcodes.’
When the Mail visited TS6 today, residents were terrified to leave their homes.
One woman, a carer, said: ‘The car crash, the fire, the stabbing, it’s too much. I don’t go out at night. I am too afraid, and I am also scared for my family.
‘There are break-ins, violence, drugs. It’s gang warfare. Its gangs and drugs and a mixture of everything.
‘I come out during the day, but at 6pm I lock the doors and I don’t leave the house again. I’ve had cameras installed because I am so worried. There’s a definite atmosphere of fear.
‘The police don’t do enough. This has been going on for years and years and now it’s escalated.’
Another local added: ‘What’s gone on is just awful. It’s gang related, and what happened to that little girl, who died in the fire, is just horrendous.
‘Where will this all end? I am worried now that things will escalate further, and there will be a full blown riot.
‘Whatever the child’s family might have done, she didn’t deserve to die. It’s shocking, awful. There’s always been a problem with gangs in the area, but it’s largely hidden.
‘Now, a gang has been upset, and it’s all out in the open. We can see it with our own eyes, and it’s terrifying.’
A local pensioner said: ‘What’s happening in Middlesbrough is shameful.
‘I have lived here all my life and been happy here, but I am now terrified for my family. I have grandkids, and great grandkids and I am scared for my young ones going out in it.
‘And I now worry how the very young ones will turn out.’
Former Middlesbrough mayor Andy Preston has warned that ‘dangerous tracksuit scrotes’ are holding parts of the town to ransom.
He told The Express: ‘You’ll hear police officers and people like me talk about them as organised crime, which they technically are, but they are disorganised crime.
‘Don’t think of The Sopranos. These guys are 22, wearing tracksuits, living week-to-week; they are gormless and stupid, but they are dangerous.’
He said the feuds can escalate quickly, noting: ‘When they have feuds – whether over money, turf, or a perceived slight – they seek to intimidate each other to back off.
‘At the lowest level, they might torch someone’s car. As it escalates, they’ll smash the windows of a family home, shoot a shotgun at a front door, or ram-raid a house with a car. Sometimes, they burn houses down.’
Four of the five men killed in the A66 smash had accumulated 37 convictions between them, including vehicle theft, drug offences and assaulting police officers.
Since Saturday’s A66 crash, police have arrested 17 people aged between 18 and 61 across Teesside as part of their investigation, who were detained on a range of offences – including possession of a firearm and being part of an organised crime group.
More than 200 officers have been deployed to assist Cleveland Police, which is one of Britain’s smallest forces despite covering an area of the country which has the highest crime rate in England and Wales.
Last night, a mob of youths torched several cars and set off fireworks at a balloon release vigil for Michael Cahill, one of the A66 crash gang.
Thugs drove around horses on a field at speed before dousing their cars in petrol and setting them on fire which brought terror to the local community.
Upwards of 60 people including children as young as six gathered on public land in Haswell, County Durham, last night, where they set off rocket fireworks and released helium balloons.
The climax of the vigil involved several cars deliberately smashing into each other before they were covered in petrol and set alight as police arrived, filling the air with huge plumes of black smoke.
Valentina Foster, seven, and her aunt Natalie McDonald, 34, died in a house fire on Wednesday
A house in the South Bank area of Middlesbrough was rammed by a car early yesterday
A house in Acklam, Middlesbrough, linked to the father of Cole Worthy, one of the young men who died in the A66 crash, was rammed hours before Saturday’s collision
Several cars were set ablaze by youths in a field near Haswell in County Durham last night
The Government has now responded with 200 extra police officers from around the country, ‘from detectives to armed response’
It is understood Cahill, who was in the doomed VW Passat which smashed into a police car on the A66 in Middlesbrough on Saturday, had lived next to the field.
An inquest yesterday heard he was from the Peterlee area and had died of head and torso injuries.
This morning a clean-up operation was underway, as locals filled bin bags with rubbish left behind on the land. Police and council workers were also at the scene, where a large, black, scorch mark had been left behind on the ground.
One woman, who lives close to the field, but didn’t want to be named, said: ‘It was absolutely terrifying.
‘It feels lawless. It’s as though law and order has broken down.
‘It’s horrendous. They are absolute scum. They did the racing around first, and then all you saw was black smoke.
‘They would say they were celebrating the man’s life, but it’s a funny way to pay your respects.
‘I saw them running about four or five cars around the terrified horses. The horses were really distressed. The black smoke was terrifying. You felt like you were in Beirut.
‘There were some very young kids there. Some were about six or seven, there with their parents.
‘It’s just awful, there are no words to describe it. A lot of the time, people are too scared to get the police involved, and crime is simply not reported.
‘I feel sorry for the officers. There’s no respect. There’s no trust in them.’
Another woman, who also lives close by, added: ‘I woke up this morning and told my husband, I feel traumatised.
‘It was absolutely terrifying. The cars were racing around on the field, which is what the locals use to exercise their dogs.
‘There were two horses on the field, and they were rallying around them. Some of the neighbours went out to try and get the horses to safety.
‘They asked them to stop the cars, but they refused, and just kept on racing about. Then they started crashing into each other, and I just thought, how stupid can you get? That’s how your friend died.
‘But they just don’t think in the same way as we do. They started crashing into each and the police arrived, and at that point, they quickly got petrol cans out and set alight to all the cars.
‘A farmer from an adjoining field took the horses away, and used his tractor to remove the burnt out cars.
‘They were also setting off rockets. The fire brigade had turned up and I overheard one of the lads say, ‘Aim at the fire engines’.
PC Matthew Blades, a father of two, was killed when his police vehicle was struck head-on by a VW Passat travelling the wrong way down the A66 near Middlesbrough
PC Tom Clough also died in the crash, which occurred around ten seconds after a police pursuit of the Volkswagen had been called off
‘It’s a terrifying thing to have happened on our doorstep. The field is a mess this morning and it’s the local community left to pick up the pieces.’
Neither woman wanted to be named out of fear of reprisal from those involved in the vigil.
It comes as at least 12 armed police swooped on a residential street about five miles away last night, shouting for the occupants of a house to come to the front door.
The incident lasted around an hour in Thornaby, North Yorkshire, while Cleveland Police officers along with others from nearby forces surrounded front and back.
Armed response officers had been called at 9.15pm after reports of a fight involving a weapon, which saw a 25-year-old man taken to hospital with facial fractures.
Four people were arrested on suspicion of affray – a boy aged 17, two men aged 39 and 43 and a woman aged 30. The men were also arrested on suspicion of wounding.
Several occupants of the house were brought out one by one, although the force later said there is ‘not believed to be any link to wider criminality at this time’.
Also this morning, a 21-year-old man arrested over the investigation into events leading up to the fatal collision on Saturday was charged with a drugs offence.
Andy McDonald, the MP for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East, told Times Radio: ‘People are saying that they are going to their shops and not feeling safe to do so and feeling trapped in their own homes.
‘That is just unacceptable. This is terrorism and we’ve got to have an appropriate response to deal with the people who are causing such mayhem in our communities and to allow people to lead their peaceful lives.’
Mr McDonald earlier told BBC Radio 4 there appeared to be a ‘causal link with organised crime’.
Violence, believed to be a fallout from the crash that killed PCs Blades and Clough, has spiralled across Teesside.
Alec Brown, leader of Redcar and Cleveland Council, said more than 200 extra police officers have been or will be sent from around the country to support Cleveland Police and that he would be asking the Prime Minister for more support.
He said officers were ‘working 20-hour days to ensure the ongoing safety of innocent residents’.
Anna Turley, MP for Redcar, said: ‘I know how worried people are, and understandably people want to know what is being done.
‘There is a significant response under way, with additional officers and resources being brought into our area and agencies working together around the clock.’
She added: ‘People have a right to feel safe in their homes and in their communities. That is our absolute priority.’
Yesterday two further incidents saw a car crash into a wall outside a South Bank home and a 39-year-old stabbed around midday in nearby Eston.
A resident near the site of the stabbing said people in the area were ‘trying to keep our heads down’.
Referring to the postcode which covers Eston, Grangetown and South Bank, among other areas, he said: ‘TS6 has gone mad, it’s brutal.’
Yesterday afternoon, armed police swarmed a house on the Bankfield estate in Eston after a 39-year-old man was stabbed. The man has been receiving treatment following the assault.
The decision on extra police was announced by Mr Brown, who wrote on social media: ‘Over 200 extra police officers from forces around the country are here and are en route, from detectives to armed response.
‘I will be sending a letter today to our Prime Minister asking for even more resources. People need to feel safe in their homes.’
Middlesbrough has the highest crime rate in England excluding central London, and rival criminal groups have been spreading fear among residents.
There were 123.4 recorded crimes per 1,000 population in the Cleveland area in the year to March 2026, according to the latest available Home Office figures.
This is some way ahead of the force with the next highest rate, West Yorkshire (107.9), as well as the largest forces Greater Manchester (103.7) and the Metropolitan Police (101.0).
The rate for the whole of England and Wales in the year to March stood at 84.7 per 1,000 population.
Cleveland also tops the list in various categories of crime.
The force has the highest rate for shoplifting (15.9 recorded offences per 1,000 people); criminal damage and arson (15.0 per 1,000); violence with injury (12.6 per 1,000); burglary (6.1 per 1,000) and sexual offences (5.0 per 1,000).
It has the second highest rate for all offences involving violence against the person (44.3 per 1,000 people, behind West Yorkshire on 45.8); and for all theft offences (35.7 per 1,000, behind the Metropolitan Police on 46.4).
Crime rates are the fairest way to compare levels of offences across the country, as they take into account the size of the population in different areas.
Homicide rates are typically measured per million population, rather than per 1,000, given the very low number of offences recorded.
Cleveland Police had a homicide rate of 21.7 per million people in the year to March, higher than any other force.
The rate for the whole of England and Wales was 8.1 per million.
There were 157.2 knife offences per 100,000 people recorded by Cleveland Police in the year to March – again, the highest rate of any force.
This was up from 151.8 in the previous 12 months.
All crime rate comparisons exclude the City of London, due to its very small population size.
Four local authority areas are covered by Cleveland Police: Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar & Cleveland and Stockton-on-Tees.
It had 1,503 full-time equivalent officers as of March 31 2026, ranking it 31st out of the 43 territorial forces in England and Wales by size, ahead of Northamptonshire (1,488 officers) and behind Gwent (1,552).
You must be logged in to post a comment Login