Michael, 17

I arrived from Ghana when I was about 10. Growing up in Brixton was hard, my mum couldn't help me out cos she was working night and day. At secondary school I was a target to pick on cos I couldn't speak English properly. It got to the point where I flipped and anyone who tried anything I used my strength against.

I'm 17 now, and when I look back our intention wasn't to become a gang, we were just children mucking about. We grew up on the same estate, came back from school and ended up playing together. As we grew up, more friends started joining and we got bigger and bigger. Age 14 and 15 it changed. We started being lunatic; robbing handbags and phones. That's when the name starts coming up - MZ. Murder Zone, my crew. Back in the day everyone from here to Croydon and Peckham knew about MZ.

Being around people that sell drugs, I knew they were making a lot of money so I thought maybe I could do this to help my mum. So I was dealing crack, heroin, weed. I could make a grand a week. I used to use a bike cos I knew the feds [police] target drug dealers in cars.

[Source]