Gangs in Liverpool
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. 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 organised crime centres mainly on the drug trade. Merseyside police have reported in 2023 that as many as 120 gangs are operating around Merseyside.
History
1950-1970
In the 1950s and 1960s, organised crime in Liverpool still centred on more traditional forms of crime, such as armed-robbery. Organised crime was contested by certain local families. These families would fight over disputes and territory, such as the ownership of pubs and clubs, but would also work together at times. This could have been in the form of a heist or robbery on the Liverpool docks, which became a place for local criminals to steal and then fence stolen goods.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 today's currency. 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.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. 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. Over time, several Liverpool gangsters became increasingly wealthy, including Colin 'Smigger' Smith, who had an estimated fortune of £200m and Curtis 'Cocky' Warren, whose estimated wealth once saw him listed on the Sunday Times Rich List.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’. Warren had an estimated fortune of £300 million. Forging direct links with the Cali Cartel, Warren and his gang flooded Europe with drugs.Warren decided to leave Liverpool for the Netherlands after rival gangster David Ungi was shot dead, resulting in a spate of shootings during a local gang war. Warren continued running his empire from Holland but was eventually taken down by a dual effort by British and Dutch police. On 24 October 1996, Brigade Speciale Beveiligingsopdrachten raided Warren's villa, where they found guns and ammunition and a large amount of several illegal drugs.
Warren was sentenced to 12 years in the maximum security prison, Nieuw Vosseveld in Vught. During his time in prison, Warren killed fellow inmate Cemal Guclu, who was serving a 20 year sentence for murder and attempted murder. Guclu started yelling at Warren, before attacking him. A fight ensued, resulting in blows being exchanged and Warren punching and kicking Guclu in the head repeatedly. Guclu hit his head and fell into a coma which he never woke up from. Warren stated he stated he acted in “self defence” but was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to a further four years.
On 7th October 2009 Warren was found guilty of conspiracy to smuggle cannabis. He was sentenced on 3 December 2009 to 13 years imprisonment.
In November 2013, Warren was ordered to pay a £198m confiscation order, or face another ten years in jail. On 27 March 2014, it was reported that Warren had lost his appeal over his failure to pay the order, and so would remain in prison.
In November 2022, Warren was released after serving fourteen years in a maximum security prison.
Colin Smith
Colin ‘Smigger’ Smith was one of Liverpool's most powerful drug dealers, with an estimated personal fortune of £200 million. He took over as de facto boss of the Liverpool Mafia after Curtis Warrens's imprisonment.In 2007, Smith was executed at close range with a pump-action shotgun. The hit, which is still unsolved to this day, is alleged to have been the first sanctioned assassination by a Colombian cartel on UK soil. It has also been alleged it was a group of rival Liverpool gangsters who ordered his death, in an attempt to take over his drug trafficking business and contacts.
1990s Gang war
A report in the Observer newspaper written by journalist Peter Beaumont entitled Gangsters Put Liverpool Top of Gun League, 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. Official Home Office statistics revealed a total of 3,387 offences involving firearms had occurred in the Merseyside region during four years between 1997 and 2001. It was revealed that Liverpool was the main centre for organised crime in the North of England. 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.Crocky Crew vs Strand Gang
In 2007, the feud between two street gangs from Croxteth and Norris Green reached its peak with the murder of innocent 11 year old Rhys Jones.In early 2004, what initially began as a petty rivalry among loosely affiliated antisocial youths and young men, spiralled into a gang war. At the Royal Oak pub on Muirhead Avenue, bordering West Derby and Norris Green, a masked gunman entered and repeatedly shot and killed Crocky Crew member Danny McDonald, setting off a chain of retaliatory shootings. Over the next four years investigators linked 17 shootings and 70 instances of criminal damage to the warring gangs, whose members brazenly roamed housing estates clad in body armour.
In 2006, Liam "Smigger" Smith, a notable Strand Gang member was murdered. Smith had been visiting a friend in prison and had a heated argument with Croxteth Crew inmate Ryan Lloyd. Within an hour Smith had been shot and killed as he left the prison gates.
Despite significant law enforcement efforts exemplified by the high-profile convictions of Mercer and six Croxteth Crew affiliates in December 2008, violence persisted, culminating in the June 2012 assassination of Joey Thompson, a respected Strand Gang member. This became the fourth murder linked to the feud.
Since January 2016 both areas have witnessed minimal gun violence incidents amidst broader regional efforts to combat escalating firearms offenses.
The Huyton Firm
Organised crime and drug trafficking in the city has been largely controlled by a secretive cartel known as the The Huyton Firm or ‘Cantril Farm Cartel’, founded in the 1990s and run by two brothers, Vincent and Francis Coggins, from the Huyton area of Liverpool. The brothers filled a power vacuum left behind after Curtis Warren and his gang were jailed and Colin Smith was murdered. They are internationally active. The National Crime Agency had been trying to convict them for over 20 years. The brothers were both finally arrested and sentenced. While Vincent Coggins was behind bars from 2020, his brother Francis Coggins remained on the run until he was arrested in June 2025 in the Netherlands and was extradited back to the UK. He was subsequently sentenced to 18 years in prison.In 2009, the Huyton firm paid a local gang led by Kirk Bradley and Tony Downes to attack people associated with a trial at Liverpool Crown Court. 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 suggested that the police intervention likely thwarted a series of assassinations in Amsterdam, connected to the Liverpool gang war. 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, a grenade exploded in the bedroom of barmaid Tina Knight. 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.