An international fraudster who was murdered on a millionaires' row in north London was a member of London's notorious 'Easy Cash Gang', the Daily Mail can reveal.
Reece Salmon, 28, was stabbed to death outside a £1.55million home in Clerkenwell, last Wednesday and died in hospital the next day. The knifeman remains at large.
The Daily Mail last night revealed that Salmon was previously jailed for a spate of gang robberies in London – before becoming an international fraudster in New Zealand, stealing cash and gold off victims as old as 95 for a British criminal network.
We can now reveal that Salmon's life of crime began as a teenager when he was recruited by the 'Easy Cash Gang' in Islington, where he grew up.
The prolific gang, also known as 'EC1' owing to the south Islington postcode they operated in, have long brought terror to the streets of London with moped robberies, drug-dealing in children's playgrounds and violent attacks.
Salmon, whose friends told the Mail he 'didn't have a bad bone in his body', was jailed for nearly four years in March 2019 after being convicted of a series of phone snatches and robberies in Camden, Islington, Westminster and the City of London.
Detectives had uncovered a garage in Macclesfield Road, Islington, that was being used by the gang to stash mobile phones stolen from across the capital. Inside they found phones, SIM cards, the handle from a broken zombie knife and a replica firearm.
Reece Salmon was one of six members of the Easy Cash Gang who were jailed in 2019 over a series of raids and phone snatches. Pictured: The gang rammed a stolen car into the luxury jewellery store Boodles. Salmon was cleared of that robbery
Reece Salmon was stabbed to death in Clerkenwell, Islington, on September 16
A mugshot of Salmon after he was arrested and later jailed for nearly four years for his role in the 'Easy Cash Gang'
CCTV footage identified Salmon, then aged 19, with Easy Cash Gang ringleader Miguel St Martin and two teenagers, aged 16 and 17.
Recovered mobile phone footage showed the suspects stealing a moped in broad daylight and threatening a security guard with a large zombie knife.
Salmon was among six members of the gang who were jailed for a combined 30 years.
The gang - armed with axes, samurai swords and zombie knives - attacked high-end jewellery and clothing shops in a two-month reign of terror in central London in 2018.
Footage showed the robbers trying to ram a Land Rover into the front of Boodles jewellery store in Sloane Street, Knightsbridge, on March 26.
One month later, the gang broke into the Yves Saint Laurent shop on Sloane Street, and stole £100,000 worth of handbags before speeding off on mopeds.
Petar Dimov, a 48-year-old builder, working at a site opposite Boodles, was slashed across the knees with an axe and stabbed in the back after he ran across the road to intervene.
Salmon was jailed for three years and nine months after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery relating to the Camden, Islington, Westminster, and City of London incidents.
He was accused of conspiracy to commit robbery at Boodles jewellery store but was found not guilty by the jury.
Hugh Mullan, defending Salmon, told the Old Bailey at the time: 'The biggest mitigating factor is his age, he is 19.
'He has shown real remorse not just in terms of his early guilty pleas and as indicated in the project 10/10 report.
'He is a young and steady person that has for whatever reason deviated from the path everyone expected of him.'
Salmon's conviction came after a two-and-a-half year campaign against a gang that led to five trials and prison sentences of more than 100 years.
Detective Sergeant Danny Watts, who led an investigation dubbed Operation Vocare after a string of mobile phone shops were robbed, said: 'These gang members were big operators in north and central London.
'However, we secured a number of significant convictions and sentences against them and they have been taken off the streets.'
Easy Cash have previously clashed with rival gangs in neighbouring areas, including Cally Boyz, named after Caledonian Road, Red Pitch, whose territory runs behind a stretch of bars in Dalston, and 'Hox', in nearby Hoxton.
CCTV shows the Easy Cash Gang looting the Yves Saint Laurent in London's West End during a two-month reign of terror in 2018
Pictured: One of the swords used during the attack on the Boodles store in 2018
The EC gang has operated in south Islington for several years, with police previously accusing them of thinking they are 'untouchable in their criminal activities and that the normal rules of society didn't apply to them'.
Members of the gang have been jailed for dealing class A drugs in children's playgrounds and carrying out smash-and-grab attacks.
After being released from jail, Salmon's thrill for crime took him to New Zealand, where he became a 'courier' for a UK-based criminal organisation.
He was jailed there in June last year after carrying out a £175,000 campaign of fraud against pensioners aged between 69 and 95, including conning one of his victims at a retirement village.
Salmon and others posed as undercover police officers, asking victims to co-operate with them in what they believed was an undercover investigation.
'The victims' assistance involved them withdrawing large amounts of cash from their banks or, in some cases, purchasing gold bullion,' the judge told Wellington District Court.
According to local media, the victims would take the cash and gold to their homes before a courier would come to them with a codeword and take the delivery away.
Salmon, one of the couriers, took money and gold from 19 victims between July 2024 and early August, often wearing disguises.
He was arrested when one of his victims was asked to buy £70,000 in gold bullion and police intercepted as Salmon arrived to pick it up.
In total, he stole £102,000 in cash and £73,000 in gold.
A widow, who lived alone, said in her victim impact statement that she had £73,000 in gold and £8,500 in cash stolen over four visits.
Pictures released by New Zealand police show Salmon as a 'courier' (left) for a British criminal gang – and when he was deported back to the UK (right)
Pictures show some of the gold that was recovered when Salmon was finally caught in New Zealand
Salmon pleaded guilty to 15 counts of obtaining cash and gold by deception – and another two charges of attempting to obtain by deception.
He was sentenced to four years in prison, reduced for his guilty pleas and the impact a custodial sentence would have on his partner and daughter, then aged three.
However, he was granted parole in February this year and deported back to Britain.
'You're still relatively young. You have the ability to change,' the judge told him.
'Clearly since you were a young person you've been mixing with a criminal crowd. Your background of offending has made that likely that you will be engaged with others who will lead you into a path of offending.
'You have the ability to decide on your return to the UK whether you will continue with that type of connection or separate yourself and concentrate on your partner and child. That's a decision that you have to make.'
Salmon had only been back in Islington for seven months before he was stabbed to death.
For much of the last seven days, residents say they have had to sign in and out with police every time they leave their homes as homicide detectives piece together just what happened.
Detectives have been forensically combing the area and interviewing neighbours on Lloyd Baker Street, where homes are worth up to £2.25million, for the last week, but the knifeman is still on the run.
A memorial has been set up for Reece Salmon, with his initials spelled out in balloons and candles
Pictures of him wearing a matching Arsenal kit with his daughter have been left at the memorial, along with his 'RS' initials spelled out in candles and flowers.
A friend at the memorial said: 'He was the f***ing loveliest guy you'd ever meet. He didn't have a bad bone in his body, a proper respectful geezer.'
He added: 'I know as much as the police. They obviously don't have a clue, they've been driving everyone mad.
'I've known him for years, I used to go to nursery with him. It's one of those faces you just see around. Everyone in the area knows him.'
When I asked about his friend's time in New Zealand, he declined to discuss and walked into the house in front of which Salmon was stabbed. The owner of the house slammed the door shut when we approached.
A neighbour living a few doors down from the stabbing said: 'It's absolutely awful. I was in the living room and just saw the flashing lights through the shutters and then all the ambulances showed up and they taped everything up.
'It's like something you see on the TV. It's horrible. It's a very local area, nothing like this has ever happened.'
Another, a father of one, said: 'It's a very quiet residential street. There's a lot of family houses. The police were there for four or five days, they blocked the road entirely. We were signing in and out every day.
'They are doing it very thoroughly. Everyone is quite shocked. Hopefully they get him [the killer].'
A Post Office worker said: 'When we came for deliveries, the police closed the road for almost the whole week. It's very sad.
'King's Cross Road is so busy, but as soon as you come up here, it's so nice and peaceful. It's beautiful.'
A neighbour who has lived in the area for 40 years said: 'Everybody is nice to each other and very friendly. This never happens, it's just a one-off.'
The victim's family said: 'We are utterly devastated by this loss.
'Reece was a loving partner and son, and he leaves behind many friends and loved ones.
'It is impossible to put our loss into words.'
When asked if detectives are exploring Salmon's criminal history, the Met said 'inquiries are ongoing' and that it could not comment.