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Facebook leads police to Scottish gang members

by mtammas | February 24, 2009 at 02:26 pm

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Police in Scotland have arrested five people after tracking pictures of weapon play on Facebook and other internet sites.

FOUR men and a child have been arrested after police saw pictures of weapons being wielded on internet sites such as Facebook.

The weapons on the web images were tracked down as police staged a major blitz to tackle gang violence and disorder in North Lanarkshire and Strathkelvin.

Officers said the five were arrested by the Strathclyde Police gangs task force after allegedly appearing with weapons on sites such as Bebo and Facebook.

Tech-savvy officers, primarily new recruits, have set to work in the Web 2.0 world and are finding that people just can't help sharing, whether their activities are legal or illegal.

As part of Operation Access, officers have been trawling sites to clamp down on illegal behaviour.

Launched last July, it has seen police cadets using their expertise and knowledge of social networking sites to gather intelligence.

As in days of old, criminals continue to play a role in their own arrests through boasting. It seems that even gang members need to stay in touch.

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jazzyzazzy

at 14:49 on February 24th, 2009

Well do realise that most yobs are ignorant and love to play the wee hard man.Showing off getting street cred.However if they can work computers not that daft are they.The yob culture today is the new political correctness backlash. ASBO ANTI SOCIAL BEHAVIOR.Was put into play and boy oh boy the yobs loved that one.In their street culture an ASBO became a badge of yob honour.Maybe the monks should refrain from distilerating the Buckfast.

good story did you know about the murder in carmyle july last year.A man was killed by a gang of 30 yobs when the police arrived at the scene,the yobs were still kicking the young man.The police told them stop it he,s deed.

unreal innit.

jazzyzazzy says peace train coming.

Amy Judd

at 15:20 on February 24th, 2009

People really need to be careful of what they put on Facebook as it can be really damaging to their lives. I've heard other stories like this too - people still aren't getting it.