Gangs in Liverpool have been in existence since the early-19th century. There were also various sectarian 'political' gangs based in and around the city during this period.[1] During the 1960s and 1970s, crime in Liverpool mainly focused on theft and armed-robbery. In the late 1970s, drugs became the new and most profitable way for gangs to earn money and made local criminals very wealthy in a short space of time. Liverpool’s modern gang culture centres mainly on the drug trade. Merseyside police have reported in 2023 that as many as 120 gangs are operating around Merseyside. [2]

Dr Michael Macilwee of Liverpool John Moores University and author of The Gangs of Liverpool states, "You can learn lessons from the past and it's fascinating to compare the newspaper headlines of today with those from the late 1800s. The issues are exactly the same. People were worried about rising youth crime and the influence of 'penny dreadfuls' on people's behaviour. Like today, some commentators demanded longer prison sentences and even flogging while others called for better education and more youth clubs."

History

1950-1970

In the 1950s and 1960s, organised crime in Liverpool still centred on more traditional forms of crime, such as armed-robbery. Crime was controlled by local families who started to gain reputations in the city. One notorious figure from this era was Charlie Seiga, who was the leader of one of the city's first 'safe blowing' gangs. Now in his late 70s, Seiga said he is "revolted" by the violence which came to tear through the city due to the influx of drugs, and advised for young people not to go down the same path he did. Seiga was quoted as saying “In the 50s and 60s there was still a code amongst criminals, which meant you respected women, children and pensioners. But that is now long gone. In my view drug dealers have destroyed families across Liverpool and I want no part of that”. He turned his back on his life of crime and is now a successful author.[3]

Liverpool Mafia

In 1969, career criminal Tommy "Tacker" Comerford was part of a gang of robbers from the north of Liverpool who spent a bank holiday weekend tunneling into a branch of the District Bank on Water Street in Liverpool city centre, using a thermal lance to open the safe and stealing over £140,000 in cash and £20,000 in property, over a million pounds in todays currency. [4] After his release from prison several years later, Comerford abandoned robbery and became involved in the illegal drug trade. In the late 1970s, he formed the "Liverpool Mafia", a group of white criminals who became Britains first drug cartel and the richest crime group in the United Kingdom. He was seen as a pioneer, as one of the first Liverpudlians to become involved in international drug trafficking.[5]

1980s

In the early 1980s Liverpool was tagged by the media as 'Smack City' or 'Skag City' after it experienced an explosion in gang crime and heroin abuse, especially within the city's more deprived areas.[6][7] At the same time several criminal gangs began developing into successful drug traffickers, including the Liverpool Mafia, which was the first such cartel to develop in the UK. As drugs became increasingly valuable, large distribution networks were developed with cocaine producers in South America, including the Cali cartel.[8] Over time, several Liverpool gangsters became increasingly wealthy, including Colin 'Smigger' Smith, who had an estimated fortune of £200m[9] Christopher 'little Ghost' Warren and Curtis 'Cocky' Warren, whose estimated wealth once saw him listed on the Sunday Times Rich List.[10]

1990s-2000s

Curtis Warren

During the 1990s, Curtis Warren became one of the biggest drug lords in the UK and Europe. He was once listed as the International Criminal Police Organisation Interpols ‘Target Number One’. Forging direct links with the Cali Cartel, him and his gang flooded Europe with drugs. Warren left Liverpool after rival gangster David Ungi was shot dead, resulting in a spate of shootings during a local gang war, and headed for the Netherlands. He continued running his empire from Holland but was eventually taken down by a dual effort by British and Dutch police. In 1998, Warren had made his only appearance in The Sunday Times Rich List, which stated as a property developer. Warren has spent the majority of the last twenty five years in prison. He was released in November 2022 after serving fourteen years in a maximum security prison.[11]

Colin Smith

In 2007, Colin 'Smigger' Smith, one of Liverpool's ‘Cocaine King’s’, with an estimated personal fortune of £200m, was executed at close range with a pump-action shotgun. The hit was reported by police to be the first sanctioned assassination by a Colombian cartel on UK soil. Smith's killing threatened a ferocious war between Britain's original drug syndicate, the Liverpool mafia, and the largest Colombian cocaine suppliers to Europe, the Cali cartel. Merseyside's crime gangs believed Colombian cartels ordered the hit on Smith over a missing consignment of the Class A narcotic worth £72m. Merseyside police reported at least one meeting in which the heads of Liverpool's cocaine trade met and agreed to avenge the death of Smith, a high-stakes player whose 1,000 kg deals sometimes affected the price of cocaine throughout the United Kingdom.

Police throughout Europe were concerned that any attempt by Liverpool's gangs to target the Cali cartel's sophisticated cocaine distribution network would produce a spate of killings. Sources in Amsterdam, where Liverpudlians and Colombians operate together to disseminate cocaine across the continent, claimed that Liverpudlian expat dealers in Amsterdam, Spain, Portugal, Bulgaria, Turkey and South America, allied to the Merseyside mafia, had been warned to prepare for a 'mafia-style bloodbath'. Liverpool dealers retaliated by shooting one senior Colombian cocaine emissary in Amsterdam.[8]

1990s Gang war

A report in the Observer newspaper written by journalist Peter Beaumont entitled Gangsters put Liverpool top of gun league (28 May 1995), noted that turf wars had erupted within Liverpool. The high levels of violence in the city came to a head in 1996 when, following the shooting of gangster David Ungi, six shootings occurred in seven days, prompting Merseyside Police to become one of the first police forces in the country to openly carry weapons in the fight against gun crime.[12] Official Home Office statistics revealed a total of 3,387 offences involving firearms had occurred in the Merseyside region during a four-year period between 1997 and 2001.[13] It was revealed that Liverpool was the main centre for organised crime in the North of England.[14] In 1999, a prominent "turf war killing" occurred when Warren Selkirk was shot five times and a bag of dog excrement placed in his hand, while his children waited in a nearby car: Glaswegian Ian McAteer was convicted of the murder in 2001.[15][16]

The Huyton Firm

Organised crime and drug trafficking in the city is now believed to be largely controlled by a secretive cartel known as the ‘Huyton Firm’ or ‘Cantril Farm Cartel’, founded in the 1990s and run by two brothers from the Huyton area of Liverpool. They are internationally active and reported to be in the same circles as Europe's significant criminal factions from Ireland, Russia and North Africa. A senior Merseyside Police detective said that the brothers operated on a different level to mainstream Merseyside criminals. The National Crime Agency, Britain's version of the FBI, have been trying to convict them for over 20 years.

In 2002 a young man from Liverpool city centre went to work for the gang in southern Spain. Later that same year, his remains washed up on a gravel beach near Benalmádena. He had been tortured, suffocated and had his lower legs amputated. The man is said to have fallen foul of enforcers who worked for the Cantril Farm cartel.

In 2009, the Huyton firm paid money to a violent local gang led by Kirk Bradley and Tony Downes to carry out a terror campaign across Merseyside. The heads of the firm opposed a sensitive trial going ahead at Liverpool Crown Court, targeting individuals associated with its proceedings. Family homes were subjected to gun and hand grenade attacks, including an incident where a grenade was accidentally left outside Kenny Dalglish’s Birkdale residence. Downes and Bradley are now serving life sentences for their roles in the 2009 terror campaign.

In 2010, the Huyton leaders dispatched a heavily armed gang to Amsterdam to assassinate a rival member of a Speke-based drug gang. Merseyside police tipped off Dutch authorities, leading to the arrest of the men by elite police and the discovery of a cache of military-standard weapons, including assault rifles with silencers. Following the June 10 arrests, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) suggested that the police intervention likely thwarted a series of assassinations in Amsterdam, connected to the Liverpool gang war. Dutch authorities cited the feud was linked to a 'spate of murders' across Europe during the summer of 2010. The hit team were said to be targeting a former Liverpool boxer affiliated with the Speke firm.

In 2013, SOCA dealt a significant blow to the Huyton firm, seizing 400 kilograms of cocaine concealed in a shipment of Argentinean beef at Tilbury docks, valued at £90 million. The operation involved the replacement of the cocaine with dummy packages and the insertion of surveillance equipment.

In March 2017, barmaid Tina Knight was getting ready for a night out with friends when a grenade rolled off the top of her wardrobe and exploded in her bedroom in the Dingle area of Liverpool. This incident exposed a drugs haul at a residence linked to the Huyton firm. Police discovered around 158kg of amphetamines worth £1.5 million and nearly 1kg of cocaine valued at around £100,000. The incident led to arrests in Merseyside and coordinated police raids in Spain, targeting the Liverpool crime group. Spanish police arrested 24 individuals, including senior Huyton firm members who were subsequently released on bail. [17] [18]

Notable gangs

The Whitneys

The Whitney gang were a notorious family gang from the Anfield district of Liverpool. As of November 2011, all members of the Whitney gang have been jailed for 82 years. The last member to be extradited from Spain was Anthony "Tony" Whitney from his home in Dénia where he got mixed up in another smuggling plot, and was apprehended for smuggling 50,000 tablets of an ecstasy-type substance.[19]

Curtis Warren Cartel

The Curtis Warren cartel was one of the biggest cartels in the UK and Europe during its reign, forging direct links with the Cali cartel. Warren, the head of the cartel was formerly Interpol's Target One and was once listed on The Sunday Times Rich List with an estimated fortune of £300 million. He owned casinos in Spain; discos in Turkey; a vineyard in Bulgaria; land in the Gambia; and money stashed away in Swiss bank accounts. Warren was blessed with a photographic memory. He never called contacts by their names, but code words; all of the Swiss bank account details were kept in his mind, never written down; he never kept accounts for his drug dealing business. The result was that he had an unlimited credit line from cartels in South America, and with cannabis traffickers in Turkey and Eastern Europe. On 24 October 1996, elite police tactical unit of the Dutch Brigade Speciale Beveiligingsopdrachten raided Warren's villa, and other property he owned in the Netherlands. Warren and several associates were arrested, with police finding three guns, ammunition; hand grenades, crates with 960 CS gas canisters, 400 kilograms (880 lb) of cocaine, 1,500 kilograms (3,300 lb) of cannabis resin, 60 kilograms (130 lb) of heroin, 50 kilograms (110 lb) of ecstasy, and 400,000 Dutch guilder plus 600,000 US Dollars in cash. The whole haul was estimated to be worth £125 million.[20]

The Fitzgibbons

The Fitzgibbon brothers, Ian and Jason, along with their mother Christine, ran an international drugs empire from their home in Liverpool. They were finally jailed in 2013, with Jason Fitzgibbon receiving a 16-year sentence and his brother Ian sentenced to 14 years and six months. The charges included a plot to smuggle £6 million worth of high-strength heroin into the country from Turkey. Ian Fitzgibbon faced additional charges related to a scheme to distribute 168,000 ecstasy tablets, potentially valued at over £800,000, on the streets of Merseyside. Their mother, Christine Fitzgibbon, aged 60, confessed to laundering drug money and received a two-year sentence. [21]

The Liverpool Mafia

The "Liverpool Mafia", is a term used for a long-standing drugs cartel which was started by Liverpool crime boss Tommy “Tacker” Comerford. In the late 1970s, he formed the "Liverpool Mafia", a group of white, middle-aged former armed robbers who, using corrupt port officials and protected by corrupt police, smuggled major quantities of amphetamine, cannabis, cocaine, heroin and LSD through the Liverpool docks. The "Liverpool Mafia" gained strength by brokering a strategic alliance with young black gangs following the 1981 Toxteth riots, and became the richest crime group in the United Kingdom.[5]

The Clarkes

Peter Clarke, a former weapon's instructor in the King's Regiment, and his brother Stephen Clarke, a security firm boss, were heads of a notorious Liverpool drugs gang, orchestrating shipments of cocaine and cannabis from Merseyside to Northern Ireland. The brothers, with access to a cache of weapons including guns, samurai swords, and machetes, were convicted in November 2013. Peter Clarke, admitted to organizing the cocaine conspiracy, while Stephen Clarke admitted to managing a network of cannabis farms. Sentenced to over 26 years combined, they faced the forfeiture and destruction of body armor, drugs, and guns, but with only £600,000 of their £3.8 million fortune to be repaid. The arsenal uncovered at a lock-up in the Ainsdale area of Southport included a sawn-off shotgun, Glock pistol, Luger handgun, revolvers, ammunition, silencers, machetes, samurai swords, stun guns, and batons.[22]

John Haase Firm

John Haase is a convicted drug dealer whose firm, which he ran with his nephew Paul Bennett, were involved in drug trafficking and many other forms or organised crime. They are career criminals with convictions for bank robbery and drug smuggling. In 1996, Haase and Bennett were given a Royal Pardon 11 months into 18-year prison sentences for heroin smuggling, having provided information leading to the seizure of firearms. The Home Secretary, Michael Howard, was criticized for the decision, and in 2008 Haase and Bennett were convicted of having set up the weapons finds to earn them their release, and sentenced to 20 and 22 years in prison respectively.[23][24][25]

Michael Showers Firm

Michael Showers and his gang were some of the first drug lords to be established in the city of Liverpool. He famously flaunted his new-found wealth by driving around his childhood area of Toxteth in a white Rolls Royce and expensive suit. Showers was jailed for 20 years in 1991 after attempting to negotiate a route for £2m worth of high-grade heroin to enter the UK. During the 1990s, his plot was thwarted by a police sting called "Operation Rain Man". The Toxteth Gangster was caught following the elaborate operation between British police and HM Customs and Excise and their counterparts on the Indian sub-continent led to the seizure of 12 kg of the drug. In 2010, he was arrested in Turkey by a joint operation by the Turkish Police and the British Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), the drugs baron was reprimanded after being linked to alleged cannabis smuggling.[26][27][28]

Tragedies

The city of Liverpool has seen several, high-profile, tragic deaths related to organised crime. Innocent bystanders and children have been caught in the crossfire between warring gangs on multiple occasions.

In August 2007, the ongoing war between two rival gangs the ‘Crocky Crew’ and ‘Strand Gang’, caused nationwide outrage when innocent 11-year-old Rhys Jones was shot in the back as he walked home from football practice and died in his mother's arms in the car park of the Fir Tree pub in the Croxteth district of Liverpool.[29] On 16 December 2008, Sean Mercer was convicted of the murder and ordered to serve a minimum tariff of 22 years by trial judge Mr Justice Irwin.[30]

Ashley Dale, a municipal worker, was murdered in Old Swan, Liverpool on 21 August 2022. The murder happened during a planned attack against her boyfriend, Lee Harrison, who had become embroiled in a conflict with a rival gang. Using a Skorpion submachine gun, 41-year-old James Witham broke into Dale's home and shot her in the stomach, killing her while she stood by the back door. Witham, alongside Joseph Peers, Niall Barry, and Sean Zeisz, were convicted on charges related to murdering Dale, conspiring to murder Harrison, and possessing illegal firearms and ammunition. Witham was sentenced to a minimum of 43 years in prison, while the prison sentences for Peers, Zeisz, and Barry were 41, 42, and 47 years, respectively.[31]

On 22 August 2022, Olivia Pratt-Korbel, a nine-year-old girl, was shot by a masked gunman, and was pronounced dead the same day at the city's Alder Hey Children's Hospital.[32][33] The attack took place at the doorstep of Pratt-Korbel's family home in Dovecot; the intended target of the attack was a 35-year-old gang member who had criminal convictions for drug dealing and burglary. During the attack, Pratt-Korbel was with her mother. A shot by the gunman passed through her mother's wrist and Pratt-Korbel's chest.[32] On 3 April 2023, Thomas Cashman was sentenced to life imprisonment for Olivia's murder, as well as for the attempted murder of his intended target; he was ordered to serve a minimum of 42 years before being considered for parole. He was sentenced to 10 years for the wounding of Olivia's mother, and received two 18 year sentences for both counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, with all of the sentences to run concurrently.[34]

On 24th December 2022, Elle Edwards was fatally shot and killed inside a pub in Wallasey, Merseyside. Merseyside Police said that officers were called to the Lighthouse Inn just after 11:50 p.m. following reports of gunshots. A gunman fired several shots towards the front entrance of the pub with a military grade sub-machine gun, which was packed with mostly young people at the time. The attack was an attempt to kill Jake Duffy and Kieran Salkeld, two men from a rival gang. Both were seriously injured in the shooting. Elle Edwards, was taken to Arrowe Park Hospital after she suffered a serious gunshot injury to her head, but tragically died shortly after. Four other men were also taken to hospital with gunshot wounds, one of whom, a 28-year-old man, was in critical condition. Connor Chapman was convicted of her murder and seven other counts, including firearm charges and attempted murder. [35]

International operations

Liverpudlian organised crime 'firms' operate on a national and international level. This mainly focuses around the drug trade but also other forms of criminality. Crime groups from Liverpool are well known for trafficking drugs in the Netherlands[36] and it has also been suggested that distribution networks for illicit drugs within Ireland, the UK, and even allegedly some Mediterranean holiday resorts, are today controlled by various Liverpool gangs, in places such as Marbella and Ibiza.[37][38]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The Gangs of Liverpool". Archived from the original on 3 January 2014. Retrieved 12 August 2013. ljmu.ac.uk
  2. ↑ Gangs in UK using Czech-made sub-machine guns
  3. ↑ "Former Leader of notorious 'Jelly Gang' robbers hits out at criminals today". Retrieved 29 September 2023.
  4. ↑ Duffy, Tom (28 December 2021). "'Top Cat' the Liverpool 'council flat' drug boss and his extravagant life of crime". Liverpool Echo. Archived from the original on 27 March 2022.
  5. 1 2 From Mr Nice to a laser scientist and 'Cocky Curtis' - meet men who drugged Britain Amanda Killelea Daily Mirror 8 August 2020 Archived 27 March 2022 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ↑ www.druglibrary.org
  7. ↑ "The Liverpool Model". Archived from the original on 15 November 2007. Retrieved 17 November 2007. www.drugtext.org
  8. 1 2 Thompson, Tony (18 May 2008). "Colombian 'hit' that set off a UK cocaine war". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  9. ↑ Rossington, Ben. "Liverpool's top gangster Colin Smith shot dead". Liverpool Echo. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  10. ↑ "Gangster freed from Dutch prison". BBC News. 14 June 2007. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  11. ↑ >From Mr Nice to a laser scientist and 'Cocky Curtis' - meet men who drugged Britain Amanda Killelea Daily Mirror 8 August 2020 Archived 27 March 2022 at the Wayback Machine
  12. ↑ Thompson, Tony (8 April 2001). "Drug gangs' spate of turf war killings". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  13. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 28 October 2007. Retrieved 11 November 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) www.criminal-information-agency.com
  14. ↑ icLiverpool – Liverpool revealed as centre for organised crime in North
  15. ↑ Thompson, Tony (8 April 2001). "Drug gangs' spate of turf war killings". The Observer. Retrieved 12 July 2018.
  16. ↑ "Drug baron gets life for killing father of three". The Telegraph. 6 April 2001. Archived from the original on 13 July 2018. Retrieved 12 July 2018.
  17. ↑ Tom Duffy (29 March 2020). "From Cantril Farm to the Costa Del Sol: the brothers behind the real Liverpool mafia". Liverpool Echo.
  18. ↑ Tom Duffy (12 August 2018). "Revealed: Police's secret war with the REAL Liverpool mafia you've never heard of". Liverpool Echo.
  19. ↑ Last member of Whitney gang extradited from Spain – Liverpool Echo
  20. ↑ Drug Lord Curtis Warren dubbed UK’s Pablo Escobar - Mirror
  21. ↑ Liverpool's Fitzgibbon drug family jailed for more than 30 years over Turkish heroin deal - Independent
  22. ↑ gangster Clarke brothers to pay back just £600k of £3.8m crime fortune - Liverpool Echo
  23. ↑ "Haase and Bennett jailed for 42 years over gun plot". 20 November 2008.
  24. ↑ "My shock at seeing John Haase on the door at pub". 15 October 2008.
  25. ↑ Powder Wars: The Supergrass Who Brought Down Britain's Biggest Drug Dealers
  26. ↑ "Merseyside drugs baron Michael Showers in Turkish court on heroin charges - Liverpool Echo". 26 July 2010.
  27. ↑ "Liverpool Echo: Latest Liverpool and Merseyside news, sports and what's on".
  28. ↑ "Liverpool drugs baron faces heroin smuggling charges in Turkish court > Local News > News | Click Liverpool". Archived from the original on 22 July 2012. Retrieved 21 March 2011.
  29. ↑ Boy, 11, dies after pub shooting BBC, accessed 28/10/07
  30. ↑ Life term for Rhys Jones killer
  31. ↑ "Ashley Dale: Four men jailed for total of 173 years for murdering council worker in Liverpool".
  32. 1 2 Dodd, Vikram; Brown, Mark; Vinter, Robyn (23 August 2022). "Gangland murder attempt blamed for shooting of Olivia Pratt-Korbel, nine". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  33. ↑ "Olivia Pratt-Korbel: Former drug dealer held after Liverpool shooting". BBC News. 24 August 2022. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  34. ↑ "Olivia Pratt-Korbel: Thomas Cashman jailed for 42 years for her murder". BBC News. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  35. ↑ "Man guilty of Christmas Eve murder of Elle Edwards".
  36. ↑ BBC – Inside Out – North West – Gangster town
  37. ↑ www.guardian.co.uk
  38. ↑ icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk
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