Drill Rappers Who ‘Celebrated’ Victim’s Murder After Fleeing to Kenya Are Jailed for Life

Killer posted music videos on YouTube bragging about the stabbing

An undated image of Alex Smith, a drill rapper known as Culprit, who was stabbed to death in Camden, London, on Aug. 12, 2019. Metropolitan Police

A drill rapper who fled to Kenya after murdering a 16-year-old rival then recorded songs which bragged about the killing and mocked the victim, has been jailed for life.

Tariq Monteiro, 23, who was known by the drill name Suspect, was convicted at the Old Bailey in London on Wednesday of the murder of Alex Smith, who was associated with a rival gang and had the street name Culprit.

Monteiro—who was convicted along with Siyad Mohamud, 24, known as Swavey—were both extradited from Kenya where they had gone on the run after the murder in August 2019.

Sentencing Monteiro to a minimum of 24 years and Mohamud to 23 years on Friday, Judge Sarah Munro, KC, said it was the second time this week she had jailed someone for killing a young man in London, having locked up Marques Walker on Tuesday.

Monteiro and Mohamud both refused to attend Friday’s sentencing but Munro went ahead in their absence and said one of the aggravating factors was that they had written and performed while on the run in Kenya which “celebrated” Smith’s death.

Six men from the Agar Grove gang—sometimes known as Active Gxng—in Camden, north London, are believed to have killed Smith, who was from the rival Cumbo gang, whose name derives from the Cumberland Market estate.

Two men—Arif Biomy, 22, and Abdirahman Ibrahim, 22—have been convicted of the murder of Smith and the trial of Monteiro and Mohamud heard a fifth suspect, Sayid Salaban, had fled to Somaliland in the Horn of Africa and a sixth man, Yassin Abdi, 23, remains on the run.

In a victim impact statement delivered by Smith’s mother, Beatriz, she described having to sit through the latest trial as “hell and torture.”

She said he was a “loving and kind” son.

She added: “On the night he died there were six people in two cars and he was hunted by a pack. I can only imagine how he must have felt.”

Mother Says Killers Made ‘Mockery’ of Son’s Death

Referring to the drill songs and videos—which remain on YouTube—Beatriz Smith said: “I can’t understand how someone can kill my son and then make a mockery of his death through songs and videos.”

Smith was stabbed to death in Euston Road just after 11 p.m. on Aug. 12, 2019.

Prosecutor Brian O'Neill, KC, said the murder, “Was yet another in a series of ‘tit for tat’ killings and stabbings amongst street gangs in the London Borough of Camden in recent years.”

O'Neill said: “In the London Borough of Camden there are about eight recognised street gangs. Such gangs have affiliations to post codes, housing estates, and other locations.”

He said: “There are rivalries and tensions between a number of the gangs which can be attributed to disputes over drugs, money, reputation, respect, and territory. A number of young men have been seriously injured and killed in Camden in recent years as a result of gang-related violence.”

The trial heard that while in Kenya, Monteiro aka Suspect put out three new tracks which all made reference to the killing of Smith.

Work of Fiction

In one track, called Freestyle, Monteiro used the lines, “Who is the culprit?” and “It’s ironic they suspect me.”

Judge Sarah Munro, KC, in her summing up to the jury, said the prosecution claimed they were a “rhetorical device” but there was a debate about whether the lyrics were a claim of responsibility or a work of “fiction.”

Drill is a form of rap music that came to Britain from the United States around 2012 and has been associated with a string of gang murders.

Opening the case last month, O'Neill said the Agar Grove gang members spotted Smith and other Cumbo gang members in Fitzrovia, an affluent part of central London.

Several young men filming a video for a drill song—a form of rap which has become very popular in Britain—in Notting Hill, west London, on May 6, 2023. Chris Summers/The Epoch Times

They drove around in two stolen cars looking for rivals.

O'Neill told the jury Monteiro and Mohamud were in a stolen Ford Fiesta, along with Salaban.

Smith and his friends left a Nando’s restaurant at 10.33 p.m. and a short while later were spotted by their rivals, who were armed with knives and machetes.

Monteiro, Mohamud, and Abdi chased after them, caught up with Smith in Munster Square and stabbed him, causing fatal injuries.

O'Neill said: “The Cumbo group had been targeted by the Agar Grove group, who acted together to chase down Alex Smith with fatal consequences. All of those who were present in those two vehicles, regardless of whether they got out and chased on foot or remained in the cars were party to his murder.”

Killers Flew to Africa Within Days

Four of the killers fled to Africa within days of the murder while Biomy and Ibrahim laid low in Southampton but were arrested when they returned to London.

Another gang member, Yusuf Yusuf, 22, was jailed for two years for assisting an offender by setting fire to one of the stolen cars after the killing.

In June 2019 the Labour MP and shadow home secretary Diane Abbott invited several drill artists to the House of Commons for a debate about censorship.

According to Dummy magazine, Abbott told her audience: “For as long as anyone can remember people have sought to blame the music they listen to for young people’s bad behaviour … Much of that drill music and the videos are horrifying and appalling but at the end of the day the music is a reflection of the lives and the reality of those young people. It is not a cause of violent crime.”

Abbott was suspended from the Labour Party last month after she made comments in a newspaper that compared racism against blacks and Jews and suggested Jewish people were not subject to racism “all their lives.”

PA Media contributed to this report.