By the way, it's strange why don't the authors say the real names at least for the convicted gangsters. Pancake Taylor is in jail for ordering a botched hit (or a beating, something like that), so no need to hide him behind the "Kallas" nickname. No way he would win the legal suit if he tried to sue whoever calls him a gangster. Same for every other one who did or does time for serious crimes. I can understand if they don't name the ones who haven't been caught, but why not the others?

Love Farina.

Dennis's greatest ever line, from Snatch, upon his return from England (note thread topic), Farina's character is asked by customs if he has anything to declare?

His response "Yeah, don't go to England."

Laugh my fucking ass off.

Now THAT PB is what you call a Segue-way

Am in Liverpool a couple of times a year staying in Dingle, Liverpool and Glasgow are pretty much a mirror of each other in every way!

Im not sure what it is but I always feel a bit "so what" when I read British gangster stuff... It doesn't hold my attention. Now, my Dad stays in liverpool and one day he took me round all the beatles attractions,, strawberry fields, penny lane, mccartney/lennons house etc-we also drove through a place that had "Somali Land" spray painted over the walls as you drove in, right next to big mansions surprisingly (he regretted taking me there). Not one white face anywhere and we got blocked in by 2 cars, checked out, then 'permitted' to leave-Liverpool and every other city ain't the nice mixing pot our politicians think...

Liverpool's ethnic mix is overwhelmingly white, beyond the now largely historic Chinese community; the dominant ethnic and cultural minority is Irish.

Were you up in Toxteth by any chance? Nothing highlights the scale of Liverpool's decline in the mid-20th century quite like the Toccy mansions, the level of wealth pumping through this city from the late 1700s to basically the 1950s was almost unbelievable - conservative estimates reckon that up until 1939 over 30% of all imported goods in the world went through the Liverpool docks.

I live basically 20 seconds from Penny Lane and the ever-present flow of tourists are somewhat amusing given that the song actually was actually written about another place entirely and Penny Lane was only used because it fit the rhythmn of the song.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-31665471

Another one last night, doubt if it was related to the shooting on Smithdown the other week, although the police are also describing it as 'targeted' - this seems to be their parlance for denoting a level of criminal organisation and motive. Warbeck Moor is in Aintree (where the Grand National is held for all you horse racing fans) and is really quite an upscale area.

As for who is in charge? There isn't one guy. There are several people who run things in different areas and with different things. I won't name names, I just don't want to do that. But there are about 3 or 4 who are running things and have been for quite some time.

As for Pancake? No, he wasn't anything other than a small-to-medium player with anger problems. Would I want to mess with him? No. But he's not what he's made out to be.

Any truth to the story that pancake had relations with Steven Gerrard's missus?

I respect your decision, but still don't you think it would be less boring to discuss the characters under their real names? At least all the forum users interested could follow them in the news, who is jailed, who is free etc. The Italian mafia in USA was always discussed as far as I know, Carlo Gambino, Vito Genovese, Lucky Luciano have always been named openly by the newspapers and they didn't mind if it didn't lead to prosecutions.

Yeah but Gambino, Luciano,...all operated in an era when organized crime was at its strongest. The Mafia was a brand name, one of the US' biggest and most thriving companies. That kind of organized crime is as dead as a dodo.

How Liverpool docks became a hub of Europe's deadly cocaine trade

Mark Townsend
A new generation of ruthless gangsters is emerging in the city at the heart of Britain's cocaine trade,
and they are talking to the merciless Latin American paymasters of the global business

There is little about Alderwood Avenue to suggest that a new battle to control Europe's cocaine trade began in this grim corner of the tough Liverpool suburb of Speke. Only the most inquisitive visitor might, among the boarded-up windows and steel-shuttered shops, pause to inspect the unprepossessing gymnasium where the local hard-nuts once met.
It was here that, just after 8pm on 13 November 2007, local father Colin Smith stepped outside and was executed with a pump-action shotgun. Smith, a balding 40-year-old who drove a Ford Galaxy and wore faded Lacoste shirts, was no ordinary resident of Speke. He was known as the "Cocaine King", the second biggest drug dealer Britain has produced, and an ally of Curtis Warren, the only trafficker to appear in the Sunday Times Rich List and currently behind bars in Jersey.

Smith had amassed a personal fortune of at least £200m as he masterminded the distribution of cocaine across Europe using direct contacts with the South American cartels. His murder triggered shockwaves throughout the international cocaine networks, tremors that continue to destabilise the global narcotics trade.

No one has been charged with Smith's execution, but details of the ongoing murder investigation reveal a narrative of gangland betrayal, retribution and a murderous power-struggle that spans three continents.

In the months before his murder, police and underworld sources say Smith became embroiled in a "disrespect" dispute with prominent figures from the boxing community.

Usually, when things "got hot" Smith sought refuge in the gym on Alderwood Avenue. It was no ordinary gym. Police believe that, at the time, it was the HQ of the Liverpool mafia, the operations room for Britain's biggest international cocaine smuggling ring. Its location in the bleak Speke backstreets was no coincidence either. John Lennon Airport is five minutes walk away. Smith's footsoldiers were constantly riding the budget carriers that roar overhead as they passed orders across the continent without ever needing to phone. "It's called Easygraft," said one gangland member.

A police source said: "The gym was their controlled talking shop, run by their security. It served the same function as the boardroom of a multinational company with Smith its chief exec."

When Smith arrived at the safe house that November night, he had no idea that close associates, including one gangland figure known only as "the Bird of Prey", had decided the Cocaine King's reign was over. His murder, according to police, was a "hostile takeover". The consequences of that takeover are now causing consternation among police and drug enforcement agencies: a new generation of Liverpool gangsters – ruthless, brazen and extremely violent – had spied a business opportunity in Mexico.

Over the past 12 months, the brutal, macabre methods of the Mexican drugs cartels have made regular headlines. In cities like Ciudad Juárez, even the arrival of the army has failed to halt the relentless expansionism of groups such as the Sinaloa cartel and Los Zetas, which have now achieved a dark hegemony over the Latin American illegal drugs trade.

According to Neil Giles, deputy director of the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), "the Mexicans are now so violent, so scary, that the Colombians are literally in thrall. They have to continue to supply the Mexicans any way they can." But the cartels appear to be looking for new routes.

Mexican counter-narcotics officials say recent offensives by the army to crack down on the influx of cocaine north into the US have prompted the Sinaloa cartel and Los Zetas to seek fresh markets, scouring Europe for like-minded individuals willing to assist a global expansion. According to intelligence reports on both sides of the Atlantic, Liverpool may be target number one. The huge volume of container shipping that makes the Mersey one of the busiest thoroughfares in the world is a gift to a sophisticated drug-smuggling organisation.

"The Mexicans are shifting their operations. Mainly the cartels are beginning to traffic to the UK, but also Spain. The cocaine is in containers and the main port of entry is Liverpool," said one Mexican official.

The dialogue with Smith's killers has already started, police believe. 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. Los Zetas control access to the Venezuelan ports from where cocaine almost certainly has already been dispatched direct to Liverpool. With menacing understatement, Liverpool police told the Observer that the issue of Mexican cartels targeting the largest enclosed dock system in the world is a "highly evolving" situation.

For the Bird of Prey, Pancake and their associates, the emerging Mexican connection follows a calamitous Spanish failure. In the aftermath of Colin Smith's murder, the new leaders of the Liverpool mafia flew to the Costa del Sol with the intention of laying down the law and inheriting one of the most lucrative cocaine-smuggling operations in the world. In Marbella, the successors to the Cocaine King were not welcomed.

Attempts to wrest control of Smith's connections in Spain ran up against a wall of silence and disdain. The newcomers were ostracised by the country's well-established nexus of cocaine brokers and middlemen – Colombian, Spanish and Scouse.

Smith's middlemen, it was clear, were not interested. And there was open conflict with a shadowy group of former IRA paramilitaries turned contract-killers called the "Cleaners", believed to be responsible for more than 20 drug-related assassinations around Merseyside. In a summer-long feud in 2008, several members of the Cleaners were murdered.

One spat with the Irish took place in the Nikki Beach Bar in Marbella when drinkers hurled themselves to the floor at the sound of breaking glass, followed by gunshots. A leaked report to a Spanish judge later claimed the Bird of Prey and Pancake belonged to a "worldwide organisation that is dedicated mainly to drug trafficking and targeted assassinations."

It was becoming clear that the Spanish route, gaining access to the influx of South American cocaine that came via west Africa, had been closed off. Or at least it could only be reopened at prohibitive cost.

Giles, of Soca, said: "As a cocaine trafficker, you get most money if you control the consignment from production to market. If you go through a lot of middlemen, the take goes down"

The old routes were, in any case, becoming hugely more difficult to smuggle through. The Spanish police and the growing success of Soca in interdicting cocaine shipments moving through Iberia was already causing alarm and rethinking in Bogotá and Caracas.

Soca is still upgrading its anti-narcotics efforts throughout Africa. Giles spent last week in Ghana telling authorities to "beware of Latin Americans bearing gifts".

Police believe the Bird of Prey and Taylor eventually returned to Merseyside last year, convinced their plan must somehow circumvent Spain and determined to explore a possibility that, before he was murdered, Smith himself had started to contemplate. The idea was to open up a direct connection with the Mexicans.

Underworld sources confirmed to the Observer that, shortly before he was murdered, Smith was holding high-level talks with the Sinaloa and Zeta cartels. He had encountered difficulties with Colombia's Cali-based cartel and had begun to woo new clients in the lawless north of Mexico. Chastened by the experience in Spain, his successors decided to pursue the same connections.

"Smith's partner [the Bird of Prey] is the only person who has the money and know-how to work with them," said a gangland source.

Proposals were hatched earlier this year to bring cocaine direct into Liverpool. According to sources in both the police and the Liverpool underworld, the Bird of Prey, Taylor and their associates have the audacity, cunning and determination to forge an entirely new departure in the European cocaine business: one which will be far more violent than previous generations of gangs.

Pancake is described as a fearsome individual, typifying a new generation of thug who has made the big time, and operates in a fashion poles apart from the methodical dealings of Smith. His emerging position in the city's cocaine trade is the first time one of the so-called "Soljas" – the hooded scallies of the sink estates – has reached the summit of the Liverpool mafia food-chain.

According to one former Liverpool gangster, "Smith was old-school. His word mattered, payments were upfront and on time. The Pancake has no social skills, he is seen as violent and unpredictable, more interested in shooting than making serious money.

"They are heavily armed, they plant homemade bombs outside pubs. If the Mexicans are doing business in Liverpool, they have met their match."

Liverpool is a place where all roads feel like they head to the banks of the Mersey, the brown plume of water that is the city's lifeblood. From the waterfront, Merseyside's famous docks stretch north for 10 kilometres, eventually swallowed by the haze above Crosby.

Perhaps it is no surprise that the river that shaped a city should also mould its criminality. One police source said: "Dockers walked off with whatever came in on the ships and this evolved in the 1970s and 1980s."

In 1983, heroin began flooding Britain through Merseyside's vast dockside. Now, only the product changes. The Port of Liverpool handles 623,380 containers a year. Around 171,000 – 468 a day – of the 20ft units hail from destinations such as South America, China and india. Security is provided by a 30-strong team of port police supplemented with around 15 customs officers, all of whom are security vetted.

Futile, according to one Mexican counter-narcotics official, who said simply: "The Sinaloa and Zeta cartel are using containers and you have no solution for that. Either you go through every container or you deal with the UK demand for cocaine." Giles confirms that storing cocaine in shipping containers is the cartels' favoured method of "bulk imports".

Their favoured method, he said, was intercepting target containers and "pulling out" the cocaine before they reached their legitimate destination. Amounts of between 250kg to 500kg were used to reduce risk in case they lost track of the cargo. A senior Merseyside Police source said: "Containers can just disappear – certainly it's easier than bringing it in on the coast using a speedboat".

So far, there have been no cocaine seizures in the Mersey docklands. But recently, Spanish authorities at the port of Valencia found 2,513kg of cocaine from Mexico inside containers. Police sources say its is highly possible the haul had a Liverpool connection.

In gangland Liverpool, the new edge of violence is widely acknowledged. CCTV footage taken from a Liverpool nightclub, Palm Sugar, reveals Pancake's penchant for aggression. Denied entry by a bouncer, images show him hurling a right-handed punch at the doorman's jaw. During the ensuing chaos, Taylor is seen hurling chairs at the nightclub's security as revellers scream in fear.

Within weeks of his return from Spain, Pancake was squabbling with Nicky Ayers, 46, a convicted Liverpudlian drug dealer. Two weeks ago Ayers, a well-known hardman, was assassinated outside his daughter's home in the West Derby district of Liverpool. Pancake was questioned by Merseyside Police, but not charged. The fallout of Smith's murder still hangs over Liverpool, most profoundly among the deprived streets that straddle the city's airport.

But the head of Merseyside Police's intelligence and security bureau, Detective Chief Superintendent Steve Naylor, who has charted the shifting loyalties in Liverpool's drugs gangs, is adamant they will snare Smith's killers.

Naylor said: "We have identified a number of disputes. Loyalties have changed. Any information will be treated with the strictest confidence."

In the meantime, the one certainty is that the cycle of killing will continue. The Mexicans are coming.

Who is the bird of prey?

Where does Curtis Warren fit into all?

Do you remember the Lock, Stock tv series?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYzbLUakMN8

Just seen this thread....didn't pancake shag steven gerrards bird?

How Curtis Warren taught the Liverpool mafia to think global and take on the world

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/how-curtis-warren-taught-liverpool-15552429

A map of the world showing countries where Curtis Warren had 'contacts'

ever read graham johnsons book THE CARTEL ?? he talks a lot about Curtis and he mentions 2 guys called KAISER AND SCARFACE they introduced Curtis into the Colombian cartel in the late 80s any idea who they are ?

any idea who Kaiser and scarface are they helped Curtis warren into the Colombian cali cartel they are mentioned in graham johnsons books

Scarface is the dutch moroccan druglord Samir Bouyakhrichan shot dead in Marbella a few years ago.

no no no the scarface im referring to is a LIVERPOOL man who along with a guy nicknamed KAISER introduced Curtis warren to the Colombian cali cartel in 1989

Kaiser and scarface are LIVERPOOL men

Yeah I read it they were older men operating in Amsterdam back in 1992. No idea.

Curtis did have a moroccan partner btw Mohamed Liazid.

Any idea who Kaiser and scarface are ? they introduced Curtis warren to the Colombian cali cartel

any idea who Kaiser and scarface are ? they introduced Curtis to the Colombian cali cartel

The Guy Who Killed Paul Massey And the other Guy . Mark Felllows Who They call Ice Man .Who Got Life could be that Hitman In the Book Cartel .Who They say Killed 8 more Men .

any idea who Kaiser and scarface are who introduced Curtis warren to the cali cartel in the 80s

they are mentioned heavily in graham johnsons books

who are KAISER AND SCARFACE ??

they are mentioned in graham johnsons book THE CARTEL

they introduced CURTIS WARREN to the Colombian cali cartel

The Amsterdam court sentenced the Brit Ian Q. (49) to 3.5 years in prison. In October, officers found him with 14 firearms and a pound of heroin in an expensive apartment in Amsterdam.

The police had received an anonymous tip about the presence of drugs in the apartment at the Jan van Zutphenstraat in Amsterdam-Osdorp. An arrest team had entered.

The Liverpool man denied that the weapons were his.

The Public Prosecutor also claimed 3.5 years in prison because the man would be involved in the professional trade in weapons.

Kevin Spacey and Al Pacino.

any idea who KAISER AND SCARFACE are ??

both Toxteth men who introduced CURTIS WARREN into the Colombian cali cartel

Why not contact graham Johnson or is he dead?