The gang's vast shipments were ferried north to Scotland and south to Bristol, Milton Keynes, Swindon, Oxford and Weston-Super-Mare. Liverpool gangsters, including the Bird of Prey and an accomplice, James Taylor, known as "Pancake", are "certainly talking" to the Sinaloa, along with Los Zetas, classified by the US Drug Enforcement Administration as Mexico's most dangerous trafficking organisation. Jason, then 42 and of North Sudley Road, Aigburth, and Ian, then 41 and of Heigham Gardens, St Helens, were jailed for 14-and-a-half and 16 years respectively in June 2013 over their plan to import 57kg of heroin from Turkey. Despite their genial manner the men were prepared to send gun and grenade toting thugs to the front door of anyone who compromised their interests. He was later handed an extra 10 months in jail for perverting the course of justice. "I should have had a big house, big mansion - at least a couple of cars but no I've given it all to the drug dealer. The gang was named after the area of Speke where they operated and made life hell for law abiding residents who had to put up with their behaviour. You can also sign up to our court newsletter here and get a twice weekly roundup of court cases sent your email inbox for free. Liverpool 8 was known then as a ghetto - and the life of the area's mainly black population of 20,000 centered around Granby Street. Back in back April 2020, we revisited some of the most feared crime families to have terrorised Merseyside. Leading gang member Sean Mercer was 16 years old when he shot Rhys in the car park of the Fir Tree Pub. Across the Universe) . London has . Unlike. And the Dutch police have the Liverpool gangs as one of their top targets. Commerford had been running his international empire from his council flat in Liverpool - while claiming the dole. Stephen Gee pretended to be a Liverpool City Council officer to con a 77-year-old widower after he caught him kerb-crawling. While the 29-year-old was not accused of pulling the trigger of any of those weapons, in October 2019 he was locked up for leading a drug and guns conspiracy that included an attack that saw the Beretta fired 11 times at a man in a Wavertree street. Police promised to meet force with force as violence flared amongst gangs - and for the first time in Britain, officers routinely and openly carried firearms. In order to enforce their dominance they collected an arsenal of weapons including several pistols and a double barrelled shotgun, and made petrol bombs out of Lucozade bottles filled with white spirit. Their minds are spent towards feuding and prosecuting vendettas against former associates. He says it all began with the mass immigration of destitute Irish into Liverpool during the potato famine. That spree of violence even saw a hand grenade accidentally left outside the Southport home of Liverpool FC legend Kenny Dalglish as Bradley and his partners in crime conducted a campaign of intimidation against a Merseyside businessman. Stephen French is now an anti-gun campaigner: "Firearms terrify me because firearms in the hands of wrong people end lives, destroy lives, end communities. Tommy made his money from bank robbery - and one detective who knew him well is Albert Kirby. Showers always denied the allegations and wrote of the squalid conditions of the Istanbul prison and his lack of faith in the Turkish justice system. We also may change the frequency you receive our emails from us in order to keep you up to date and give you the best relevant information possible. Anything else you need to know - The Liverpool Echo has a dedicated crime reporter in Joe Thomas. At the peak of the gangs notoriety in the 2000s, they were reported to have members as young as 12 and called themselves 'Nogzy soldiers'. By the mid 80's, Liverpool's drugs squad was trying to clean up what had become known as 'Smack City'. liverpool gangsters list liverpool gangsters list. Detectives were astounded when they listened back to the tape of Jason and Ian rowing over who was the more adept criminal. The drug dealer was put behind bars for the publics protection after a secret probe caught him conspiring to buy guns and threatening to kill a teenager. "You couldn't possibly fall out with him. "I could not get off drugs in this city because I'd be back on them the next day. "This was like a seven mile treasure trove of goods to pilfer for poor people," says Macilwee. While he is still thought to be in jail, those terms mean he could soon be eligible for a parole hearing to argue for his release. It is as if they belong to some sort of outlaw tribe which has rejected all of societys moral standards and conventions. [8] George Cornell. Members became infamous for robbing rival drug dealers' cannabis farms then selling the drugs themselves. He's credited by police with being Liverpool's first drugs baron. The gang's arsenal of weapons included a St Etienne revolver, Tikka hunting rifle, Smith & Wesson revolver, Baikal shotgun, Browning shotgun and a Smith and Wesson revolver. 2009 - Sentenced to 13 years in jail. Gangs often take their names from areas their members live or operate in, such as the likes of the Strand Gang or the Scottie Road Crew. We also may change the frequency you receive our emails from us in order to keep you up to date and give you the best relevant information possible. They operated at a level that was light years ahead of their contemporaries in Liverpool. I hate it, having to get up in the morning and having to depend on something "If I knew then what I was going to be like I'd have stayed away from it and that's the truth, I'd have stayed away.". This notorious family gang came from the Anfield area - but their ill-gotten gains bought them plush pads in some of the city's most sought-after post codes. 1. The two men have escaped justice for decades which is why the ECHO cannot name them. 27 febrero, 2023 . In January 1884, the body of a Spanish sailor was found in the city, brutally beaten and stabbed in a way that was terrifyingly reminiscent of the murders carried out by a gang that had been operating in the area a decade earlier. He had his own drivers and issued instructions, with phone records revealing significant contact between him and drug dealers. Ordinary families had to look the other way as local gangsters tried to turn a residential estate into an enclave exempt from the rule of law. But he was very successful in his own way.". Foy, of Chelsea Road in Litherland, joined them behind bars when Judge Robert Trevor-Jones sentenced him to 37 months. Mayor, then 37, went to extraordinary lengths to avoid arrest, even hurling 2kg of heroin out of his Mercedes car window while being chased by police. Foy was busted through an extensive Merseyside Police operation targeting the supply of illicit substances across Sefton. "And if we don't teach them the human feeling, the human emotion and the human contact and that the human spirit must come together when they hit the street, I'll be staying indoors.". Having spent more than a year at large, they voluntarily chose to return to the UK rather than remain in a squalid Thai prison. Photos Quinton previously kept on his mobile phone, which were published by the ECHO after his sentencing, showed his fascination with guns, dating back to his youth. This means that we may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. And there were gangsters in the background. Ryan Lloyd, 19, Thomas Forshaw, 18 and Sean Farrell, who was just 16-year-old, were convicted of Smith's murder and jailed. To join and get updates, click here and you can also follow Neil's Facebook page here. The National Crime Agency has estimated that 90bn of criminal money is being laundered through the UK every year, 4% of the country's GDP. Jurors who had listened to the trial, which lasted more than two months, found ringleader Reese OShaughnessy, 19 and Keyfer Dykstra, 14, guilty by a unanimous decision after more than 17 hours of deliberation. "And if we as elders of the villages and communities don't have something to keep their interests and channel their energies, it doesn't bear thinking about. He added: The Whitneys are an unpleasant family, significant in the Anfield area, their reputation was well-known. The Whitney gang were a family drugs ring that flooded the streets of Liverpool with drugs, peddled crack and heroin next to school playgrounds and lived a life of luxury off the back of it. Twenty one men were locked up for a total of 189 years in December 2018 in connection with police seizures yielding around 66,000 of cocaine, 208,000 of MDMA, 336,000 of amphetamine, 420,000 of cannabis and 80,000 in cash. Jason and Ian Fitzgibbon were both jailed in 2013 after it emerged they were plotting to flood the UK with Turkish heroin. Top row l-r: Lee Hughes, Bonar Kekula, Liam Oxley, Gerard Downs. You can email Joe via joe.thomas@reachplc.com, Thanks for reading. Before that incident French, nicknamed The Devil because he struck such fear into the drug dealers he taxed and tortured, had claimed a Road to Damascus-style conversion had put an end to his evil ways. Moore and his gang had gone looking for revenge after a fight between their associates and rivals earlier that day. A bug, which was planted by SOCA in their family home on Edale Road, recorded the brothers bickering in front of their mum about who was the better drug dealer. Darren Gee was handed 18 years behind bars in 2006 for planning the revenge shooting murder of dad-of-five David Regan. Back in June, we took a look at some of the most notorious gang names from across Merseyside and how they came to be. Joseph Mulhare and his brother Gregory Mulhare were at large for more than a year, Wirral brothers Joseph Michael Mulhare and his brother Gregory Michael Mulhare, wanted by Merseyside Police, after their arrest in Thailand, Inside the ecstasy producing drugs lab, uncovered in the cellar of a Birkenhead home, Darren Gee pictured in Maryport Close, Everton. The 18-year-old was snared after being caught on camera selling drugs to an undercover officer posing as an addict. Liverpool academic and author of "The Gangs of Liverpool", Mick Macilwee, has been studying the gangs who terrorised the streets of the Victorian city. Lucy Hargreaves, 22, was under a duvet on the sofa in her front room in Lambourne Road when three men burst in August 2005, fired a shotgun at her and then torched the house. These are some of the gangland names to have emerged from Liverpool's criminal underworld over the years, and where they originate from. When Turkish police smashed an Istanbul based drug gang, the trail began to lead back to South Liverpool. Liverpool Gangster: Stephen "The Devil" French | True Crime Podcast 113 Shaun Attwood 242K views 2 years ago 6 Million Bank Robber Part 1: Ian 'Blink' MacDonald | True Crime Podcast 7 Shaun. But that has not stopped some of their names from hitting the headlines over the past year. The name Deli Mob relates to the area of Kirkdale where some members of the gang, centring on Delamore Street. "Because these young men, these young children they have fathers that are murderers, uncles that have been killed, cousins who are doing life and they are becoming desensitised to human feeling. Robbery was also the trademark of one of Charlie's contemporaries - Tommy Commerford, known to his mates as 'Tacker'. None of them has ever done a days honest work in their lives or aspired to do so. Watch podcast 3 with Darren Gee here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K757EryVMOcWatch podcast 2 with Darren Gee here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMdKNi. Receive newsletters with the latest news, sport and what's on updates from the Liverpool ECHO by signing up here. They are known and feared by others as the Croxteth Crew. Enforcer who worked for Charlie and Eddie Richardson during the 1960s. Police want to question Parle in relation the murders of Walton mum Lucy Hargreaves and Toxteth teenager Liam Kelly. We use your sign-up to provide content in the ways you've consented to and improve our understanding of you. Last year the police arrested a number of suspects in the Kirkstone Road area in relation to a serious crime. Over 30 years he's defended in 70 murder cases - many involving gangsters. He has appealed both sentences, including the cannabis plot one, after police unlawfully bugged a hire car central to the case and listened in on conversations that took place inside it. The pair were jailed in December 2019 for a total of 28 years at Liverpool Crown Court over plots said to have been worth "millions of pounds". They built criminal empires which left a trail of misery and violence. Gee, formerly of Maryport Close in Everton, was found guilty of two counts of threats to kill and another two of blackmail at a trial. We will not though, ignore crime as it impacts on many lives. In November 2011, the family and their associates were sentenced to a total of 82 years in jail for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs, with individual sentences ranging from two to nine years. In December 2013 a court imposed a 10-year prison sentence on Warren after the expiration of a 28-day period he was given to cough up the 198m the authorities claim he has tied up in assets around the globe. In October 2019, Jake Burrows was jailed for 25 years and six months, while Callum Burrows was jailed for 20 years. The crooks used vehicles featuring specially constructed 'hides' to conceal drugs and cash, so a casual observer wouldn't spot any illicit cargo. But they had spent years sat at the apex of a massive criminal network in Liverpool, stretching from their home in Anfield across much of the city. He made the pensioner drive home to show him ID, where he demanded the elderly victim hand over a 1,000 fine, or 100 deposit. These are some of the city's most prolific crime families, many of whom lived lavish lifestyles off the back of their ill gotten gains. Geoffrey Lowe, prosecuting, described him as being part of a generic group of people called the Linacre Young Guns - a gang that operates across Bootle and Seaforth which is said to have come into conflict with the infamous Fernhill Gang on the streets of south Sefton. He was recently released from his latest jail stint after being found not guilty of rape when prosecutors dropped the charges he had branded malicious. Why we're doing this story - We have a mix of stories, many of them hugely positive about the city. In July 2017 Curtis Warren lost in a bid to contest his conviction. In 2011, the Whitney family and their associates were hauled in front of the courts and sentenced to a total of 82 years behind bars. He knew that we were aware what his criminal activity was and he used to use us as a game really. 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