‘Drug dealers ‘waged war’ in club

DETECTIVES are investigating a suspected arson attack on a Kilburn snooker club where rival drug-dealers have been waging war with guns and knives.
Poolcrest Snooker Club in Kilburn High Road was gutted in a raging blaze on Sunday that took 70 firefighters manning ten fire engines nearly three hours to control. Three residents of flats above had to be rescued via ladders.
The fire damaged flats above the club and shops below it but the police investigation is understood to be focusing on the snooker club, which detectives believe was burgled before the blaze.
Regulars at the snooker club, which stays open until 4am, say they have seen cannabis openly sold and smoked in the club for some time.
A source claimed a culture of silence meant many crimes were not reported to police, including a gun pulled in a row in October and a savage beating a fortnight ago, in which at least 20 men attacked a man who had brandished a knife and left him lying in the street.
Police were called to that attack but found only blood stains and damaged snooker cues when they arrived.
In August Camden Council refused to renew the club’s alcohol licence after police warned that there had been “two serious assaults where people from the premises have been directly involved and the victims were stabbed and beaten with weapons” within the previous three months.
A police report to the Town Hall warned that when officers attended the club “there was a strong smell of cannabis and when spoken to the alleged manager stated that he could not smell anything.”
The report added: “A search of the premises discovered quantities of cannabis left openly on the tables that police confiscated.
“CCTV on display only covered the front door and the premises have several blind spots and even a small pool room that are not visible from the bar area.
“The rear fire escape was padlocked and deadlocked and when this was pointed out to the manager he made no attempts to unlock it.”
Police appealed for witnesses to another stabbing connected with the club late last summer.
They remained tight-lipped about the investigation this week, with a spokesman saying only that the burglary was not yet being linked to the fire and that they were “fully aware of the circumstances surrounding the Snooker Club and all issues are being fully investigated”.
The managers of the club could not be contacted and the building’s owners, Palmbest Limited, did not return phone calls from the New Journal.
The blaze is estimated to have caused £30,000 of damage to snooker and pool tables alone and the future of the club is now unclear.
Shop worker Noorkha Yathobi, 28, said he was watching TV in his flat – one door down from the snooker club – when his brother phoned to warn him about the fire. He said: “I came out and saw the smoke first, and then I saw the flames. They were about two to three metres from floor to ceiling in the snooker hall.” Another neighbour, who asked not to be named, said he was pleased the club had burned down.
He said: “There were always druggy people going in there, I’m glad it’s gone.”