RAMBO KNIFE CRIME WAVE
Revealed: The Home Counties sporting store famed for its fishing tackle fuelling a deadly
THE violent crimewave sweeping the UK is being fuelled by a Home Counties fishing tackle company that makes deadly ‘Rambo’ hunting knives.
Gangs and drug dealers have adopted the terrifying blades – some more than 18 in long– as t heir weapon of choice in murders, stabbings and violent rampages, a Mail on Sunday investigation can reveal.
The weapons can be bought for less than £10 and boast chilling names including First Blood, Fantasy Hunting Knife and Predator.
So many of the blades made by the firm Anglo Arms are flooding the streets that police have seized more than 30 of them in the past month alone.
The wholesale company sells the knives to shops and online retailers. Last night there were calls to crack down on the firm and close the loophole that means lethal knives can be sold online and delivered to home addresses.
MP Sarah Jones, chairwoman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Knife Crime, said: ‘ There is absolutely no way these horrific weapons should be on our streets. I would like to see the police investigate who these online retailers are selling to as a matter of urgency.’
She added: ‘The Government said it would ban this as a priority last April but since then they have repeatedly delayed putting the legislation through Parliament. In that time knife crime has increased and every day that knives like this are on our streets puts people in danger.’
Anglo Arms is run by Eddy Eliaz, 39, a keen angler who also sells fishing tackle through his firms, Next Generation Tackle and Sporting Wholesale.
Sporting Wholesale had a turnover of £8 million in 2017, making a gross profit of £2.5 million.
The companies are all based in a large warehouse in affluent Harpenden, Hertfordshire, just 30 miles but a world away from the London streets where his products are increasingly found.
The warehouse also houses DNA Leisure – an online retailer selling Anglo Arms products which is owned by Mr Eliaz’s brother Adam.
The latest Anglo Arms catalogue features 19 pages of knives, swords and machetes – all currently legal for over-18s to buy.
They include a range of blades sold under the name of films that feature knives prominently, including Rambo, Predator, The Expendables and even Crocodile Dundee. Some of the knives are 20in long.
For as little as £9.99, the company sells a black lock knife decorated with a blood-spattered picture of comic-book villain the Joker.
Top- of- the- range items include an ‘assassin’s sword’ with a 26in blade, costing £55.
But the most commonly seized products appear to be two 15in hunting knives, one with a serrated blade and the other with holes in it to make it lighter.
Either can be bought from sur- vivalist website Preppers Shop – which is not owned by Mr Eliaz – for just £9.99.
Independent policing researcher Gavin Hales said: ‘It became clear late last year that two very large and fearsome models of knife, both sold under the Anglo Arms brand, were regularly cropping up on police social media accounts, having been seized from members of the public – including teenagers too young to buy them legally.
‘ The more I and others have looked, the more we have found. We might ask why they are apparently so popular on the streets of cities like London, where and how they are being purchased, how in many cases teenagers are getting hold of them, and especially whether – given their design and low price – they may even be fuelling knife crime.’
Analysis by this newspaper has found that at least 31 of these two knives have been seized by police since the start of the year.
Most were found by officers searching suspected gang members or drug dealers in London but others were found in Birmingham and Worthing. In one shocking
‘Their only use is to seriously hurt people’
case, a 14-year-old boy was caught with five Anglo Arms blades on a Sunday afternoon in Highbury, North London.
He was spared jail even though he could have got up to four years behind bars.
Inspector Owen Pyle wrote online last week that one of his officers in Southwark, South London, had found a ‘nasty’ Anglo Arms knife on a 17- year- old during a stop-and-search.
He said: ‘We’re finding these on people every single day. Their only use is to seriously hurt people.’
Asked online by a member of the public how the teenager could have got hold of t he weapon, Insp Pyle replied: ‘ I’d suspect they’re bought off of the internet. Some people sell them and deliver them with no check sat all. Very irresponsible.’
And police in Islington told how a ‘concerned mother’ found one of the ‘terrifying’ weapons hidden in her 15-year-old son’s jacket.
Further analysis has uncovered more than 50 incidents last year where Anglo Arms knives were involved. The company’s distinctive slotted blade hunting knife was found on Muaz Tarafdar, after he tried to flee from police in Cardiff and was bravely tackled by members of the public.
After Abbas Dinki drove his moped at police in East Ham, he was found to be carrying an Anglo Arms serrated hunting knife.
Police sources say chiefs are aware that Anglo Arms products make up a large proportion of the weapons being found by officers.
The National Police Chiefs Council said it did not keep statistics on the types of knives seized but a spokesman added: ‘We do seize a large number of hunting knives.
‘They are purchased via shops and also online. We work with retailers online and on the high street to explain their obligations when it comes to selling knives. Forces carry out checks and will take action when retailers are found not to be meeting these expectations.’
Since July 2017, the Government has been pledging to take action to stop under- 18s buying knives online. The Offensive Weapons Bill will make it illegal for knives to be delivered to home addresses, so retailers will have to check the age of the purchaser before handing over their order.
However, it has been repeatedly delayed going through Parliament and could be pushed back even further because the Home Office is planning to add extra amendments to introduce Knife Crime Prevention Orders.
The Asbo-style orders are aimed at stopping rival gangs feuding by imposing curfews and even social media bans.
Latest figures show knife crime is soaring after years of decline.
A House of Commons Library report in November found there were 40,100 knife crime offences in England and Wales in the year to March, a 16 per cent rise on the previous year. And there were 134 homicides in London last year – the highest number for a decade.
Police and the public want more bobbies on the beat to keep order and to stop and search suspects.
But London Mayor Sadiq Khan has set up a Violence Reduction Unit that is treating the crime epidemic as a ‘public health’ problem to be treated by looking at the longterm causes of young people joining gangs and carrying weapons.
A spokesman for the Home Office said last night the Offensive Weapons Bill will become law by the summer. It will also ban the possession of weapons whose sale is already banned, including flick knives and knuckledusters.
Eddy Eliaz has been contacted for comment.