In the ’80s a number of things conspired to bring brown smoke-able heroin to Liverpool … 47% of black workers unemployed, 43% of white workers [news clip] … No opportunities whatsoever … Young people weren’t of any value to society, or so they felt. And then of course we had the Toxteth riots in ’81 … A visitor from the US came in the ’80s and said, This is like Beirut. This is like a bombed-out shell, a husk of a city and a number of other things … ibid. comments
The game-changer was a cheap, high-grade smoking heroin became available. It was from Pakistan. And I’ve got Pakistani family. So I immediately kind of seized the opportunity to capitalize on that. Yeah. ibid.
Yeah, and that would be 80-90%. ibid.
It was like total destruction. It spread like cancer. Straightening out your foil, putting in your little bit of powder, at the corner where you wanted it. Getting a little pleat in your foil. Tilting it a little bit. Your flame underneath the powder. And then inhaling. Everything seemed to slow down a bit. You feel comfortably numb. No more worries, no stress, nuttin’, just comfy. ibid. Billy Moore, former addict
It was an epidemic that happened in this city. You know this city was flooded with narcotics. ibid.
Everyone’s on heroin? How the hell did that happen? ibid.
Operation Rainman surveillance … Suddenly, these guys were doing seriously well. And flaunting it. And that kind of rankled with us. So we kind of took that personal. ibid. rozzers
This was the early ‘80s. You drove round in a white Rolls Royce? ibid. rozzers to Showers
So in 1983 the police tried to prosecute Michael Showers for the second time in short succession. On this occasion it was for possession of a firearm, cannabis, and heroin. The case collapsed in court. And Michael Showers to this day maintains that the case was never legitimate against him. In effect he was fitted up. ibid.
British Customs subsequently bring the heroin into the UK. ibid.
Rozzer: You were convicted of smuggling heroin?
Showers: Yes, convicted on fabricated evidence by Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise. ibid.
And he was sentenced to twenty years in prison. Which for that amount of drugs was extraordinary … The system wanted to make an example of him … ibid.
In 1991 Michael went to prison for 20 years. He served 10. Then in 2010 he was arrested in Turkey and charged with intent to supply heroin internationally. He denied the charges but was sentenced to 10 years in a Turkish prison. He returned home to Liverpool in 2016. ibid.
’89 is a key year for Liverpool … After Hillsborough so many people and so many things changed … And then this drug popped up; a small tablet that created happiness. Liverpool Narcos II: Ecstasy, Emile Coleman, Sky Documentaries 2021
Best buzz you’ll ever get. It’s a love drug. ibid. user
In a sense there was something evangelical about selling ecstasy. You were doing a good thing for people … Demand outstripped supply in terms of quality. ibid. counsellor
Much of the blame for all that can be laid on the burly shoulders of 34-year-old Curtis Warren. Arrested after a raid on a warehouse; investigators discovered cocaine with a street value of £75 million. Once known as Interpol’s Target One, Warren led a gang who for years had flooded Europe with heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and hashish. Liverpool Narcos III: Cocaine
Curtis Warren was released from Dutch jail in 2007. He was convicted in 2009 on further drug smuggling charges in Jersey. He remains in prison. ibid.
A young girl gunned down in her home. A mobster convicted of murder. And a city brutalised by drug crime. We investigate how the gangsters who brought death to Liverpool’s streets made millions. Panorama: The Drug Wars that Killed Oivia, BBC 2023
A hitman arrived firing two guns. The gunman is after a local drug dealer. Career criminal Joey Nee … Joey Nee follows her and tries to get into the house with the gunman in pursuit. Cheryl is trying to shut the door on Joey Nee when the gunman takes out a second weapon and fires towards the house. ibid.
‘A nine-year-old child has been murdered in her own home.’ ibid. rozzer
The day before Olivia was murdered, just two miles away, another family lost a daughter to gun crime. ibid.
Over the last 50 years organised crime has taken hold in Liverpool. ibid.
The city has suffered a series of high-profile shootings. Olivia Pratt-Korbel was the latest. ibid.
Liverpool is at the heart of the UK drug trade. ibid.
Comerford was put back behind bars. But by now, Customs had identified 50 crime groups in Merseyside. ibid.
1980s: They flooded the city with cheap heroin. Whole estates were ravaged by the drug. ibid.
Warren Curtis: Britain’s biggest ever cocaine importation. ibid.
In the early 2000s Liverpool’s drug wars intensified. ibid.
The new wave of younger gangsters had grown up with guns on the streets and they were hardened to the violence. Drug wars broke out across the city between the new young gangs and the older mafia bosses. ibid.
In the early 1980s British society is in turmoil. Unemployment and crime are on the rise. From the chaos a drug lord emerges: Curtis Warren. Drug Lords: The Takedown s1e1: Target One, National Geographic 2023
A new generation of drug traffickers rises from the ashes of the riots. Granby Street in Toxteth is their headquarters. ibid.
Ecstasy sales gave Curtis Warren seed money. ibid.
A drug war breaks out on Liverpool’s streets. ibid.
At just 34 years old, Warren owns mansions around the world. He’s named in the Sunday Times rich list as a property developer worth $66 million. ibid.
By the close of the 18th century, 40% of the world’s slaves were transported on ships that were launched from Liverpool. British Gangsters: Faces of the Underworld s2e1: Liverpool, Amazon 2024
The drugs that fuelled the combatants involved in these gangland brawls generally arrived in the UK on small boats. ibid.
Drug dealers such as Curtis Warren continued to flourish. ibid.