The notorious crime family who rule Hatton Garden

Take a stroll through the capital's diamond district, Hatton Garden and the winding alleys will feel suspiciously serene. 

While tourists on the hunt for a bargain diamond may praise the seemingly safe enclave, for those involved in the jewellery trade, danger looms from a much scarier source.

According industry sources, Hatton Garden has been under the thumb of notorious British crime family the Adams Family or the Clerkenwell Crime Syndicate for around 45 years.

With Terry Adams, nicknamed the British Godfather at the helm they have extorted traders, facilitated drug trafficking and even been rumoured to have had a hand in gangland killings. 

And while the three most powerful brothers Terry, Tommy and Patrick (Patsy) are well into their late 60s and early 70s their name alone still sends shivers through market sellers' spines. 

Sources who have worked in the diamond district for decades told the Daily Mail that despite claims the family has less control the gangsters are the reason local shops have avoided becoming a target of theft. 

One source said: 'Even now traders are terrified of crossing the family, their grip is still very much on the area.

'It would be stupid for petty criminals to try and cross them.' 

Another source who had dealings with the family in the past said: 'I did hear that a well known Hatton Garden jeweller married into the Adams family. It was seen as part of their turf or patch.

'But I am not sure if that is still the case today.'

He added: 'From what I hear the jewellery heists are carried out by foreign gangs. They come over, do the jobs and get off.

'The watches and other items are all bound for Dubai, where there is a lucrative black market.

'My suspicion is the Albanian and Romanian firms are all over this kind of work in London.'

The three brothers were born into a working-class Irish Catholic family, living in Islington.

They began their criminal careers extorting traders, which quickly evolved into conducting spates of armed robberies. 

But as the police became more successful at tracking down thieves, by the mid-'80s the brothers pivoted into drug trafficking. 

Gaining a reputation, the group garnered a series of nicknames including the Adams family or the A-Team.

And using their power and brute it is believed they laundered their money through Hatton Garden, using a diamond merchant, Smithfield and a West End nightclub.

Patsy was known as the muscle, allegedly being the first person to use hit men on motorbikes to carry out assassinations.

It is even believed that in their prime, the A-team had detectives, lawyers and prosecutors all on their payroll. 

Throughout the '90s cases made against them by Scotland Yard and HM Customs constantly fell through. 

However, at the height of their power they were in control of the majority of the cannabis, cocaine and ecstasy trade in London. 

Eventually, they were charged and arrested for various crimes.

Patsy was jailed for nine years in 2016 for shooting someone he suspected of being a 'grass'. 

Before he was arrested, the gangster was on the run with his wife in Amsterdam.  

Tommy was sentenced to seven years in jail in 2017 after police bugged a cafe where he was discussing his crimes.

Undercover officers also witnessed couriers exchanging thousands of pounds in a plastic bag in Euston Station.  

Meanwhile, Terry was jailed for money-laundering for seven years in 2007 after MI5 bugged his home and also told to pay £750,000 in a confiscation order to avoid further prison time. 

In 2014, a High Court judge refused his application for a certificate of inadequacy to begin the process of getting a reduction.

Three years later he was ordered to pay back more than £700,000 of his criminal earnings to avoid spending further time in prison.  

A retired London bouncer told the Mail that the Adams family influence on the streets of London was negligible.

The man, who asked not to be named, said: 'The Adams were active in the '80s and '90s. 

'The Adams started to run out of money, and that meant they could not hire dangerous criminals who needed paying. They have been on slide since the early noughties and I have not heard the name in years

'The white guys have had their day - the London they were part of vanished decades ago.'

One of the most famous endeavours they were associated with was the 2015 Hatton Garden heist. 

The burglars worked through the four-day weekend of the Easter and Passover Bank Holiday, when many of the nearby businesses were closed.

It was reported that they had entered the premises through a lift shaft, then drilled through the 50cm thick vault walls with a Hilti power drill.

Sources previously told the Daily Mail that Adams could have been the mastermind behind the entire operation.

'This street is a full of useful tips and information. It is quite possible they (the Adams firm) are the source of the robbery. A burglary of this size cannot happen just like that — out of thin air. And these people are so powerful here that they can do anything.'

There was frenzied speculation that somewhere in the vault was a piece of evidence which could have seen Adams sent to prison for the rest of his life. 

One Scotland Yard source told the Daily Mail: 'This was never about stealing all that gold and jewellery. It was a job arranged by a Mr Big who only appears to have been interested in one particular box, the number of which he knew.

'Once that had been identified and removed, he may have told the gang they could have their pick of whatever was there. The message would have been: 'When the job's done, feel free to fill your boots.'

Nowadays, London has become a playground for theft with shopkeepers and residents fed up of the mounting smash and grab raids blighting their streets.

In the latest raid, hammer-wielding thugs broke into a family-run jewellers in plush Richmond on Saturday morning.

Just two days earlier and several miles away, a moped gang conducted an audacious 'high value heist' on a jewellery shop which itself was targeted in a similar raid just over six years ago. 

Days prior, a gang smashed their way into the sought-after designer store Yves St Laurent in central London and fled with a haul of luxury handbags worth up to £30,000.