GANGSTERS from Manchester have been told that ‘enough is enough’ after a series of raids in East Lancashire.

An operation to protect the county with a ‘ring of steel’ – crimebusting cameras placed at strategic entry and exit roads to Manchester and Yorkshire – has been drawn up by Lancashire Constabulary.

Det Insp Steve Dowson said: “The clear message to criminals who come into Lancashire to commit crime is that they will be caught and will go to prison.

“Organised gangs who come into Lancashire from Greater Manchester and elsewhere will realise that they cannot get away with it.”

Detectives issued their warning after a gang ringleader from Manchester was jailed for seven years for an attempted robbery on a security van delivering cash to an ATM outside an East Lancashire village store.

Sledge-hammer wielding thugs tried to hold up a Group 4 van near the Select Convenience store in Whalley Road, Simonstone.

But the gang were moments too late and security guards managed to shut the ATM, before they could grab the cash.

One of the armed raiders, Christopher Decieco, 29, from Charlestown, Salford, was yesterday jailed at Manchester Crown Court for his role in the Simonstone raid in July 2008 and several other attempted robberies across the North West.

Eight other men were jailed at the Manchester court, after confessing to robbery conspiracy charges.

Decieco’s girlfriend Katie Murray, 21, also from Salford, was jailed for eight months for perverting the course of justice at Chester last May.

DI Dowson said the investigation to convict Deieco and his accomplices was ‘long and complex’.

He said: “This was clearly a pre-planned attack involving an organised gang from Manchester who travelled into Lancashire to commit crime thinking they could get away with it.

“It is testament to the professional attitude of the investigating officers and information from the public that these men have been arrested and brought to justice.

“We treat any attack of this nature extremely seriously and will always thoroughly investigate this type of crime.

“This should send a clear message to criminals who come into Lancashire to commit crime that they will be caught and will go to prison.”

• Detectives believe Manchester and Salford gangsters took part in the alleged kidnapping of Paul Brady from a luxury home near Bacup in August.

• Last month a man was shot by armed officers from Great Manchester police in Haslingden as part of a "planned operation".

• Villagers in Worsthorne, near Burnley, were terrified last year when up to 30 men from Salford thundered into the quiet hamlet in Range Rovers and BMWs.

• In January a gang from Whitefield completed an armed raid at the Halifax bank, in Berry Lane, Longridge.

• In December Marsden’s Jewellers, in Clitheroe, was robbed by the same gang.

• Earlier this month four Manchester men were jailed for a total of 23 years for carrying out a £200,000 raid on Ancient and Modern jewellers in Blackburn.

• PC Katie Johnson was gunned down by a Manchester gang in an armed robbery at the Hospital Inn, Bamber Bridge on New Year’s Eve, 2007.