Police pledged to crack down on corrupt prison officers after a male officer was jailed for smuggling drugs to inmates.

Richard Carew, 34, "abused his position of authority" by taking cannabis and mobile phones into Pentonville Prison inside hidden compartments in clocks and cans of drink, Scotland Yard said.The former officer at the north London prison was jailed for five years at Southwark Crown Court on Friday, a police spokesman said.Acting Detective Inspector Neil Smithson, of the London Prisons Anti-Corruption Team, said: "Carew abused his position of authority...

Murder squad detectives were quizzing three men last night after two friends were gunned down in an execution-style shooting.

They were arrested almost 24 hours after Mohammed Farah, 19, and Amin Ahmed Ismail, 18, were blasted with a volley of shots to the head in a street ambush in Milton Keynes, Bucks, on Thursday night.The two teenagers were killed in what was believed to be a gangland reprisal after members of rival gangs fell out. Mohammed, who had five brothers and sisters, lived in Milton Keynes but had fled to Birmingham several months ago to avoid clashing with...

Midland gangsters and hardmen featured in new Faces book

HE dark lines etched on their world weary faces only hint at the colourful lives they once led.These days most are pensioners, enjoying the twilight years of their retirement.But in their heyday they were some of Britain’s most feared gangsters and hardmen.Now they have been recorded for history in two new books by a Birmingham author, himself a former feared criminal.Bernard O’Mahoney has highlighted key figures from the days of the infamous Kray...