The Clerkenwell Crime Syndicate, also know as The Adams Family; or the A-Team is a well established English criminal organisation. It was originally established by Terry Adams and his brothers Tommy and Patrick in the 1980's and is allegedly one of the most powerful in the United Kingdom.
Terry Adams......
Tommy and Patrick "Patsy" Adams......
Their criminal activities include............
Racketeering
Drug Trafficking
Murder
Extortion
Bribery
Pimping
Bookmaking
Money Laundering
Human Trafficking
Smuggling
Fraud
Arms Trafficking
Theft
The brothers were born to Irish parents and were part of a large family of 11 children who grew up in Barnsbury, Islington. The syndicate was based in Clerkenwell, a suburb of London, they have been linked to 25 gangland murders using Afro-Caribbean muscle as additional manpower to murder informants and rival criminals. In addition to developing alleged connections to Metropolitan Police Officers the A-Team were also stated to have had a British Conservative MP in their pocket at one point.
It was asserted that their influence had decreased from 2000 onwards. Police Officers, speaking "off the record" to British newspapers, alleged that the family has been credited with acts that they simply did not carry out. The Adams/A-Team had created so much fear and respect with the British Criminal Fraternity, they had become a "brand" synonymous with organised crime.
The Metropolitan police were so concerned with the seriousness of their crimes and reputation they established a hand picked team of detectives and the UK's highest level security service, MI5 in order to crack the Adams "mafia-like" organised crime cartel.
Terry Adams
His downfall came with the assistance of MI5 and the Inland Revenue; this marked a unique interdepartmental collaboration, the first of its kind since the "Cold War" ended. They played a leading part in the electronic war against Organised Crime, and turned its sights and resources on Adams international criminal cartel.
He was arrested in April 2003, detectives found high value art, antiques, cash, jewellery in his home. At a hearing in the Old Bailey, the prosecution summed up their case saying " It is suggested that Terry Adams was one of the countries most feared and revered organised criminals. He comes with a pedigree, as one of a family whose name had currency all of its own in the underworld. A hallmark of his career was the ability to keep his evidential distance from any of the violence and other crime from which he undoubtedly profited from".
On May 18th 2007, Adams was ordered to pay £4.8 million in legal fees to three law firms who had initially represented him under the UK's free legal aid scheme; he was also required to pay £800,000 in prosecution costs. Terry Adams admitted a single specimen money laundering offence on 7th February 2007 and was jailed for seven years. Released on 24th June 2010, he was eventually recalled to prison in August 2011 for breaching his licence.
In May 2009 media reports suggested that his £1.6 million house was for sale as a result of the fees and costs arising from his 2007 conviction.
Tommy Adams
Tommy was allegedly the financier for his brothers Patrick and Terry; he was charged with involvement in the handling of the Brink's MAT gold bullion, but in 1985 was cleared of involvement in the laundering of the proceeds during a high profile trial with co-defendant Kenneth Noye.
Kenneth Noye
Tommy Adams is suspected of establishing connections to other criminal organisations as well as gaining an $80 million "credit line" with a Colombian drug cartel. In 1998 he was convicted of masterminding a £8 million hashish smuggling operation into Britain; for which he was jailed for 7 years. At the trial he was ordered to pay an unprecedented £6 million criminal asset embargo or face an additional 5 years on top of his original term. This was eventually reduced to £1 million after an appeal, to which he paid in cash!!
Patrick "Patsy"Adams
Patsy is regarded as one of the most violent organised crime figures in Great Britain, he gained an early reputation in underworld circles by using high speed motorcycles in gangland murders; and was a suspect in at least 25 organised crime murders over a period of 3 years.
He was sentenced to 7 years in primo in the 1970's for an armed robbery, he was allegedly living in "exile" in Spain. Altbough both him and his wife were wanted in connection with an attempted murder in Smithfield meat market in central London on December 22nd 2013; they were both eventuall arrested in Amsterdam on 7th August 2015.
