The Burger Bar Boys and Johnson Crew are infamous names in Birmingham’s criminal history—rival gangs that brought decades of violence and fear to the city’s north. Their reign over the drug trade and territorial disputes left a lasting mark on communities in Handsworth and Lozells.
While many locals who never lived amidst the conflict remain fascinated, those who experienced their brutal control simply want to forget. A series of rigorous police operations and numerous arrests had led many to believe these gangs were finally dismantled.
Yet, in 2025, these names resurface in high-profile court cases tied to violent crimes and deaths, reminding Birmingham that the scars have not fully healed.
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To be clear: the Burger Bar Boys and Johnson Crew themselves are not back, according to West Midlands Police. The gangs as they were known have largely dissolved. However, the underlying conflicts persist, morphing into new forms.
In a tragic example, Ishmael Farquharson was sentenced in September to 22 years for killing 16-year-old Sekou Doucoure, who was stabbed in broad daylight on an Esso petrol station forecourt in Newtown. Sekou had been a prominent member of “Get Round Der” (GRD), a gang tied to the B20 postcode, historically Burger Bar Boys territory.
Court testimony revealed Sekou and a friend crossed into “enemy territory” in Lozells to provoke rival gang members. That area, though now controlled by the 9Boyz, was once the Johnson Crew’s stronghold.
Pc Gareth Evans, a seasoned West Midlands Police gang investigator, described the evolution of these rivalries: “The Burger Bar Boys and Johnson Crew don’t truly exist anymore. They’ve transformed into loose affiliations of young people rallying around local postcodes, often without understanding the historical context.”
He explained the real battleground has shifted online, with social media platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube fueling conflicts as much as the streets themselves.
The trial heard how young teenagers were recruited and exploited by entrenched gang members, with rivalries playing out in drill rap videos and frequent violent encounters over territorial boundaries.
Among those involved were Pierre Thomas (“P.Dot”) and Fardi Jafal (“Cadz”), who were convicted of manslaughter in 2023 after a prior related case.
Farquharson fled to Spain before being captured and tried alone this year. His exact gang affiliation remains unclear, but his actions underscore the deeply rooted cycle of violence.
Earlier in the year, life sentences were handed down to Meshaq Berryman for a drive-by shooting at a wake in Handsworth, where mourners were targeted in a brutal display of gang vengeance. Berryman’s background echoed the tragic narrative of deprivation, disrupted education, and peer influence.
Judge Melbourne Inman KC called the violence “a scourge of this city as it is elsewhere,” lamenting the repetitive pattern of gang-related firearm violence that has plagued Birmingham since the 1980s.
The Burger Bar Boys and Johnson Crew first emerged in that era, igniting a wave of shootings that eventually branded Birmingham as the UK’s “gun capital.” And though their names and faces have changed, territorial divisions remain, with young lives still caught in the crossfire.
The story of Birmingham’s gang violence is not just history—it is an ongoing reality, with local courts and communities continuing to confront the haunting legacy of the Burger Bar Boys and Johnson Crew.