THE "three Saddams" brought their own reign of terror to shop staff wielding knives, guns and baseball bats before demanding cash.

Jamie Miell, 25, of Keith Lucas Road, Farnborough, was convicted of conspiracy to commit armed robbery and 18 other linked firearms charges at Reading crown court.

Mark John Davies, 28, of Lodge Court, Briton Ferry, Neath, had already pleaded guilty on April 1 to conspiracy to commit robbery and 19 linked firearm offences.

And Miell's stepbrother, 22-year-old Garri Wayne Collins, of Ashill Road, Aldershot, pleaded guilty on June 16 to conspiracy to commit robbery and 21 linked firearm offences.

As well as the the incidents at Usk post office, on November 4 last year, and the town's Spar shop, on November 18, the robberies were committed in Cardiff, Swansea, Bridgend, Neath, Buckingham shire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire and Surrey.

They all took place between October 30 and December 19 last year. The gun-toting thugs used knives, guns and baseball bats. They made off with more than £30,000 before being caught.

The trial heard Miell and his two accomplices bought rubber Saddam Hussein masks from a joke and sex shop in Blackpool and indulged in a series of shop raids.

The gang preyed on "soft targets" like pubs and post offices, cracking victims over the head with baseball bats or taking staff hostage with a gun to their head to traumatise their victims into handing over money.

Miell had claimed in his defence that Davies was trying to frame him as the third robber, despite extensive CCTV footage, DNA evidence and critical

eye-witness accounts linking him to the raids, throughout the four-week trial.

He told the jury the only reason his DNA was found on a green balaclava used in the robberies was because he wore it once during a night of passion with his girlfriend.

The jury heard six police forces were working together to catch them. Blood from one of the victims was later found on Jamie Miell's hooded top which he wore during the robberies.

Judge Zoe Smith adjourned sentencing the three until October 28.

OPERATION Frontier, the investigation that caught the gang, involved more than 200 police officers at its height from eight different police forces.

The six main forces were Gwent, Dyfed Powys, Hampshire, South Wales, Surrey and Thames Valley.

Detectives investigating the offences formally linked all four 'Welsh' robberies and used the HOLMES (Home Office Large Major Enquiry System) computer system.

Incident rooms at Cardiff and Pontypool were joined by a computer link, and all information, evidence and intelligence gathered from the four robberies were analysed.

This led to the identification of Mark Davies as a suspect. It was discovered that he was hiring a series of cars both in England and Wales and staying in hotels situated along the M4 corridor.

Operations were put in place to locate Davies as well as attempts to predict where the group would strike next.

Contact was made with English police forces and formal links were made with their investigating team.

Nine days later a significant breakthrough was made with the identification of Garri Collins and Jamie Miell as being Mark Davies' accomplices.

Thames Valley Police raided a flat used by them, but although the offenders were not there clothing and other items including a handgun and balaclavas were recovered to positively link them with the robberies. Further addresses were raided and on December 1, Jamie Miell was arrested at a house in Farnborough. By this time they had committed a total of 18 offences.

The robberies ceased for 16 days before resuming on December 10. The ongoing police operation attempted to predict where the robbers would strike next and as a result they were sighted by police, having just committed their final robbery at Pontneathvaughan, Dyfed.

They managed to escape and dumped their car in Ebbw Vale before making their way back to England in another hire car.

An ongoing sweep of all hotels situated off the M4 corridor between Swansea and London finally located the hire car near the Heston Services. Armed police from the Metropolitan Police Service later arrested Davies in his hotel room. Garri Collins was arrested two days later in Reading.