Faces of the Underworld 2

In the mid 70`s Michael Showers was released from prison. He saw that the demand for drugs was on the increase and set about
transforming its supply. Showers’ pioneering decision was to buy cannabis direct from Africa. Through family and friends Showers
forged numerous links in the African continent and soon his business was thriving. His first shipment was a tonne of cannabis
from which he made £700,000. Heroin had been around London’s bohemian community for decades but it only started to move
into the country’s working class areas in the mid to late 70`s. By the end of that decade Michael Showers had began trading
in the deadly but lucrative drug. Within a very short period of time he owned a fleet of cars which included a Rolls Royce and
several homes, all of which he had purchased for cash. Very few others immersed in the heroin trade enjoyed such a comfortable
standard of living. Council estates, devastated by unemployment, were further ravaged by crime as those addicted to the new
cheap heroin flooding the country sought to feed their habits. Police forces throughout the UK were forced to target burglars,
robbers and muggers in an effort to stem the spiralling crime figures. In the most deprived areas, which were generally populated
by black and ethnic minorities, officers would stop and search anybody they deemed suspicious under the controversial Vagrancy
Act of 1824. This ancient law permitted the police to stop and search, and even arrest, anyone found in a public place on the
grounds that they suspected that they might intend to commit an offence.

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In 1981 the British economy was in recession, unemployment was at a fifty-year high and Toxteth had one of the highest
unemployment rates in the country. The Merseyside Police force had, at the time, a poor reputation within the black community
for stopping and searching young men in the area. The perceived heavy-handed arrest of Leroy Alphonse Cooper on Friday 3
July, watched by an angry crowd, led to a disturbance in which three policemen were injured. The following weekend full-scale
rioting broke out. Pitched battles between police and youths were fought and petrol bombs and paving stones were thrown. At
the height of the violence milk floats were set on fire and driven at police lines. At 2:15 a.m. on Monday 6 July Merseyside Police
officers fired CS gas grenades at civilians for the first time on mainland Britain. The gas eventually succeeded in dispersing the
crowds. In all, the rioting had lasted nine days during which 468 police officers were injured, 500 people were arrested, and at
least seventy buildings were damaged so severely by fire that they had to be demolished. Around 100 cars were destroyed, and
there was extensive looting of shops.

In the wake of the Toxteth riots Michael Showers put himself forward as a community spokesman meeting politicians and
appearing on the BBC programme Question Time. In a remarkable turnaround, Michael Showers, a serious career criminal with
convictions for drug dealing, shooting and stabbing landed a job with Liverpool City Council as an immigration advisor. Showers
was not the only villain to emerge from the ashes of a civil disturbance as a leader or spokesperson for his community. The riots
in Liverpool had been replicated throughout Britain and in every town and city a leader of the affected community emerged. In
Salford anarchist and consigliore Ken Keating was known for organising many of the region’s top gangs in military fashion. He
would tell their leaders which buildings and businesses should be attacked during riots and identify who should receive any looted
goods within the community. After the riots Keating further advised villains which businesses they should approach for donations
(protection money) and how this money should be used to assist the needy. Keating, who achieved an almost legendary status
throughout Salford, died in 2011.

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In a cynical ploy to keep rival drug dealers off his patch Michael
Showers used his position on the council to spearhead a
campaign against hard drugs. However, few were surprised
when in 1991 Showers was imprisoned for twenty-two years
after his attempt to import £2million worth of heroin into the UK
from Afghanistan. At the time, Showers’ conviction was deemed
to be the most significant of any UK national in the fight against
heroin.

In the same year that Showers was imprisoned a fellow Toxteth
man named Curtis Warren emerged onto the drug scene. His
rise from the streets to inclusion in the Sunday Times rich list is
one of the most remarkable in British criminal history. Warren’s
career as a criminal got under way at the age of eleven when he
was recruited to join a team of notorious burglars.



According to the man who recruited him, the youthful Warren had `the face of an angel` and was small enough to fit through
even the tiniest of windows. That man was Stephen French, aka `The Devil.` The former British, European and World kickboxing
champion, earned his Satanic nickname after torturing and robbing drug-dealers. French became one of the most feared figures
in the north-west and his influence resulted in Warren becoming involved in many forms of criminality.









In 1981 Warren was arrested during the Toxteth riots and a year later he was sentenced to two years imprisonment for assault.
After Warren was released, some police officers believed that he had turned his life around, becoming a bouncer at a Liverpool
nightclub. However Warren was learning all about the drug trade in club land and by the time he was twenty, he had become an
international drug trafficker. In 1991 Warren flew to Venezuela to arrange the importation of 1,000 kilos of high quality cocaine
into the UK. The shipment arrived hidden inside fifty lead ingots. When the drugs were removed, the man called in to dispose of
the ingots was former dock thief turned scrap dealer Paul Grimes. In 1991 Grimes’ twenty-one year-old son Jason had become
addicted to heroin which led to Grimes hating all of those involved in trafficking drugs.

Grimes was clearly not the man Warren should have chosen to become involved in his illicit business, but Warren never was
a very good judge of character. His drug dealing partner at this time was a Middlesbrough based businessman named Brian
Charrington. Often described as one of the most investigated criminals in Europe, Charrington built a criminal empire with links
around the world. When British security forces unwittingly revealed he was their `supergrass` on Colombian cartels,Charrington
was rapidly relocated to Australia but his visa was revoked shortly after his arrival. After moving to Spain Charrington laundered
millions of pounds which he used to import cannabis from Morocco.

During the late 1990’s Charrington appeared in court, at Bristol, where he was acquitted of importation charges after it was found
customs officers had illegally boarded his boat which was carrying 4-tons of cannabis worth £80million. After re-entering Britain
to visit his family in 2002, Charrington was arrested by police on conspiracy charges. The case against him was dismissed when a
judge refused to allow evidence gathered by phone tapping. Soon afterwards, a warrant was issued which sought his extradition
to Germany. In July 2003, Charrington was sentenced to seven years in Frankfurt, for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine. (Phone
recordings linking Charrington to a smuggling operation run by his son Brian Charrington Jnr. who served four years and three
months for the offence, were used to convict him). In January 2009 Brian Charrington was attacked by his son Brian Charrington
Jnr. and hospitalised. This created a bitter rivalry between the two and both have since issued death threats against one another.
In 2013 Brian Charrington Snr. was arrested at his Spanish villa on suspicion of murdering a former business partner and running
a multi-million pound drug trafficking organisation. A spokesman for the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) told reporters,
“To say we are pleased he is in custody is an understatement.”

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As soon as Paul Grimes had gleaned all of the necessary information from Curtis Warren’s gang about their next importation
he relayed it to HM Custom’s officers. They subsequently seized £150million worth of cocaine and arrested a dozen suspects
including Warren. In April 1993 the trial of the accused began at Newcastle Crown Court but irregularities in the Crown’s case led
to the judge dismissing all charges and the defendants were freed. Grimes was bitterly disappointed about the outcome of the
trial because shortly before proceedings had commenced his son had died from a heroin overdose.



In an effort to bring Warren down the police launched a surveillance operation code-named Crayfish. Aware of the intense
scrutiny that he was being subjected to, Warren moved to Amsterdam in the belief he would be beyond the reach of British
justice. For five months Warren’s phone was tapped by the Dutch Police who had agreed to assist their British counterparts.
Warren was subsequently recorded threatening to blow up rival drug dealer’s homes and planning to import cocaine from South
America. When the Dutch authorities had gathered enough evidence against Warren he was arrested and later imprisoned for
twelve years.

Whilst socialising one evening, Grimes took exception to a man who was being rude to a female cashier in a nightclub. Threats
were exchanged between Grimes and the man who eventually walked off muttering about revenge. Grimes was warned by
friends that the man was extremely dangerous and he should watch his back but he calmly replied that he wasn’t concerned
about any man. He should have been, because the man issuing the threats was John Haase. In the 70`s and early 80`s Haase had
led a gang of ruthless armed robbers which targeted post offices and security vans throughout Britain. Haase was considered to
be extremely dangerous and would not hesitate to use a firearm or any other weapon if things didn’t go his way. A few weeks later
Grimes and Haase met by chance in a bar and agreed to put their differences aside. The men became friends but unbeknown to
Grimes at that time Haase had become a multi-millionaire after importing tonnes of heroin. Haase had secretly pioneered what is
now known as the Turkish Connection to the UK. The Turkish Connection is the trading route from the poppy fields of Afghanistan
to the cafes of north London which is run by the unforgiving Turkish Mafia. They control the world’s heroin trade but Haase was
determined to at least manage the British market with their assistance.

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In July 1993 Customs officers arrested Haase and several Turkish nationals. A staggering 50-kilos of heroin with a street value of
£18million was discovered in a safe house in Liverpool. Eight of the arrested men were eventually jailed for a total of 110 years.
Haase was sentenced to eighteen years imprisonment and had £840,000 confiscated. It was a major coup for Customs and Excise
who were still reeling following the collapse of Curtis Warren’s trial. The earliest Haase could be considered for parole was 2002
but just eleven months after being sentenced he was free. Haase was mysteriously granted a royal pardon and after making
a secret deal with the then Home Secretary Michael Howard. During an earlier spell in prison Haase had met ‘Mad’ Frankie
Fraser, who explained how London villains planted their own guns and then told the authorities they belonged to other villains
and where they could be found. In return for such valued intelligence, the ‘informant’ was granted early release. When Haase
had been sentenced to serve eighteen years imprisonment, he decided to pull the same stunt, but on an unprecedented scale.
Despite being incarcerated in a high-security cell, between October 1993 and January 1995, Haase paid £1,150,000 to acquire a
huge arsenal of high-calibre weapons and hired ‘planters’ to carry out his cunning plan.

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On Friday 2 December 1994 garage owner Thomas Bourke’s
murder trial was drawing to a close. He was accused of
shooting dead two Department of Transport inspectors at
a garage in Stockport, Cheshire.

His barrister was so confident of an acquittal he decided
Bourke need not go in the witness box. Over the weekend
an underworld informant tipped off the authorities about a
gun in Manchester’s Strangeways Prison and claimed it had
been smuggled in to help Bourke escape if he was found
guilty. By the time the jury returned on the Monday morning
stories about the smuggled gun had been published in the
media and Bourke’s trial was suddenly surrounded by a ring
of steel. Armed police patrolled Manchester Crown Court,
snipers lined the roof and a helicopter hovered overhead
as he was brought to court. Bourke was convicted on a
majority verdict but has vehemently denied being guilty
for nearly two decades. In 2008 it emerged that John
Haase had arranged for the gun to be smuggled into prison
inside a sandwich toaster. Haase had then tipped off the
authorities’ and blamed associates of Bourke.

Another sinister twist to Haase’s deception was unearthed
many years later following the murder of BBC Crimewatch
presenter Jill Dando who was gunned down in April 1999
by a lone assassin on the doorstep of her home in south-
west London. Her killer, who shot her at point-blank range
through the back of the head with a 9mm pistol, has never
been caught. Confidential documents held by Merseyside
Police suggest a link between Haase and Dando’s killing.
When a Scottish villain named Walter Kirkwood was
arrested with a cache of weapons, he was carrying the
same type of ammunition used to kill the TV presenter.
Kirkwood had been stopped by police as he prepared to
drive an arms cache from Liverpool to Glasgow on behalf
of Haase.

Kirkwood was not the only Scottish villain assisting Haase.
Glaswegian Rab Caruthers had been approached by an associate
of Haase and asked if he could supply a large consignment of
illegal weapons. It was emphasised that these weapons were
going to assist Haase in being freed from prison.

Caruthers debated the pros and cons of doing business with
Haase with his closest friend Paul Ferris. Initially Ferris had
reservations, but after much consideration he concluded that
the people selling the guns would be paid a premium rate, the
police would believe they were removing guns from the hands
of ever increasing trigger happy villains and no one was going to
face arrest or imprisonment. It was a win - win deal for everybody
involved. Haase’s associates bought £20,000 worth of weapons
from Caruthers, including fifty tripod mounted machine guns,
machine pistols, handguns, a rocket launcher and some plastic
explosives.



It is unclear how many men were linked to Haase’s spending spree but over a three month period police officers were able to
recover caches of weapons that included 150 Uzi sub-machine guns, AK47 assault rifles and thousands of rounds of ammunition.
The circumstances surrounding each find were tantalisingly similar. Many of the caches were found in abandoned cars, which
had been bought for the purpose a few days earlier. Police were directed to the secret locations with remarkable accuracy. In all
cases, although guns were recovered, no arrests were made. Nonetheless, the finds were reported to the public as a major coup
in the fight against organised crime. The truth is that it was a very clever con. Once the weapons had been planted Haase had
approached Customs officer Paul Cook and offered information on where the weapons were `hidden.` The authorities believed
that Haase was a bona-fide informant and so in 1996 he had been rewarded with his freedom. Not surprisingly, within weeks of
his release John Haase was back in business.

The Turkish connection was re-established and heroin shipments began to flood into the UK. Still angry about the death of his
son, Grimes contacted HM Customs when he heard rumours about what Haase was up to. At a meeting it was agreed that if
Haase was importing Class A drugs then he should be brought down. Grimes spoke to Haase and said he needed work. Without
hesitation Haase offered Grimes a job which was readily accepted. Initially Grimes was given mediocre tasks but within a few
months he was working alongside Haase in his office. Approximately nine months after Grimes had started work, Haase began to
talk openly to him about his heroin and cocaine deals. Grimes began passing the information to Customs officers and they began
building a case against Haase and his gang. It was the beginning of the end for John Haase.

On 25 October 1999 Haase was arrested at Liverpool Lime Street station after returning from a trip to London. On 21 February
2001 he was sentenced to thirteen years imprisonment. Three years later Haase agreed to meet MP Peter Kilfoyle and journalist
Graham Johnson at HMP Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire. In a futile attempt to broker yet another deal Haase admitted that he
was responsible for purchasing and planting the weapons which led to him being granted a royal pardon. He claimed that Home
Secretary Michael Howard’s cousin was paid substantial amounts of money to bribe officials. In the political storm that followed,
an inquiry into Haase’s allegations was ordered. Unfortunately for Haase it resulted in him being charged with perverting the
course of justice. At Southwark Crown Court Haase pleaded not guilty and insisted that the tip offs regarding the weapons were
genuine. However, his confession, which had been recorded and a string of prosecution witnesses, indicated to the jury that he
was lying. One of those prosecution witnesses was Domenyk Noonan a member of Manchester’s most notorious crime family.

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Noonan agreed to give evidence for the prosecution because he claimed a gun found in his car had been planted by one of
Haase’s associates. He also claimed to have information relating to the gun that had been smuggled into HMP Strangeways prior
to the conviction of Thomas Bourke. Damning evidence was also produced that linked Haase’s wife to the weapon caches. Her
fingerprint was found on a bin liner containing guns. After just five hours of deliberations the jury found fifty-nine year-old Haase
guilty of conspiring to pervert the course of justice. The judge sentenced him to twenty-two years imprisonment. When details of
Haase’s deception and Paul Grimes’ detective work became known several convicted prisoners who had always maintained their
innocence began to re-examine the evidence against them.

In July 2006 Jeanette Burke was imprisoned for a total of forty years after being found guilty of conspiracy to supply heroin and
cocaine. A gang, which included Burke’s former husband, were watched by Customs officers as they moved scaffolding between
Merseyside and the continent to give the impression they were operating a legitimate construction business. The only thing
they were in fact building was an international drugs empire. Had they escaped detection they would have made more than
£3million from every shipment they smuggled into the country using their links to crime gangs in Holland, Spain and Serbia. While
workers carried out genuine jobs across the north of England, Burke’s former husband sent deliveries of scaffolding equipment
to Barcelona for fake jobs. When the scaffolding tubes returned to Britain they were filled with huge quantities of drugs. For
more than a year officers watched and took notes as the gang carried out illicit importations, biding their time as they waited for
the ideal moment to smash the network. Twenty gang members were arrested when Customs and police officers did eventually
swoop and all were given lengthy prison sentences. David Baker, a leading member of the gang who was sentenced to a total
of twenty-five years, has always maintained that Jeanette Burke is entirely innocent and he was set up by Haase. Burke, a bona
fide millionaire of previous good character, was only linked to the gang by dubious phone evidence. Several innocent calls were
made to her former husband regarding family matters but the prosecution alleged that they could only have been about drugs.
A surveillance team claimed Burke met her husband alone at a McDonalds restaurant to discuss `business` but photographs
proved her daughter Alexandra, a former Miss Universe contestant was with her in the car. The quality of the evidence that sent
Jeannette Burke to prison for forty years is at best extremely disturbing.

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Just as Liverpool had benefited from its geographical position on England’s north-west coast, the Midlands had benefited from
a wealth of natural resources. In the early 18th century an abundance of coal was discovered in East Shropshire which in turn
produced a seemingly never-ending supply of energy. In 1709 Abraham Darby founded the Coalbrookdale iron foundry near
Telford and it is widely acknowledged that it’s here that the Industrial Revolution began. Thirty miles away in Birmingham the
canal system was updated in order to ferry raw material and products to and from the factories. By the late 18th century,
Birmingham had become one of the most important trade centres in Britain. While the majority of the Victorian public basked in
the glories of the British Empire, the great cities of the Industrial Revolution became breeding grounds for violent young gangs
of a kind never seen before. They were the product of overcrowded slums and tenements, where life was cheap and many died
in infancy. Violence was an accepted part of their day-to-day existence. The only way to survive was to band together, perhaps
first with brothers and sisters, then later with fellow workers and neighbourhood friends. The most infamous group to emerge in
inner-city Birmingham was the Peaky Blinders. Unlike other gangs, the Peaky Blinders had a carefully styled image; bell bottom
trousers, a silk scarf twisted round their necks and tied at the end, and a flat cap tilted on their head. The Peaky Blinders were
responsible for a crime wave of murder, riots, robberies and knife attacks that often left the police powerless – and saw locals too
scared to venture outside after dark. Their bloody reign mirrors modern-day Birmingham, where post code gangs murder rivals
simply because they wear different coloured clothing accessories or reside in a different street. Villains in the Midlands it would
seem have always been extremely ruthless.

Whilst working at the Norfolk Hotel, Patrick O’Mahoney met and married a fellow Irish national named Ann Scanlon. The couple
had four children, Jerry, Paul, Bernard and Michael. For reasons unknown, Patrick began to drink heavily after Bernard’s birth and
embarked upon a campaign of psychotic violence against his wife and children. The experiences of Patrick’s time in St. Michael’s
Industrial School must have killed any decency within him. His teachers certainly convinced him that his survival depended on
him suppressing his softer emotions. That was what life had taught Patrick and it was the only lesson he wanted to pass on to
his children. He hated to see them crying or showing similar signs of ‘weakness’. Even as infants he expected them to behave like
grown men, or, rather, like the man he’d grown into - cold, hard and ruthless. If they came home from school with black eyes or
another mark on them Patrick would beat them and offer the only bit of fatherly advice he ever gave: ‘Don’t let people get away
with hitting you. If they’re bigger than you, hit them with a weapon.’ Unfortunately for their fellow pupils, Jerry, Paul and Bernard
all adhered to their father’s advice and became magnets for trouble and like minded young men. One of their most ruthless
associates was a man named Don Tear.

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All had attended the same school in Codsall, a small village on the outskirts of Wolverhampton. Like the O’Mahoneys, Tear was
not averse to employing any means necessary to settle a dispute. Tear’s reputation for violence resulted in him being employed
to `take care of ` Charlie Kray during his regular visits to Birmingham. In the mid 60`s Charlie Kray and his twin brothers had
established a foot hold of sorts in the city and forged several long standing friendships. Charlie Kray had two particularly close
friends’ in Birmingham; Big Albert Chapman and Reggie Kray’s former cell mate Patsy Manning. At the age of seventeen Chapman
had started work as a bouncer at the Plaza nightclub in Handsworth. A year later he had become the manager of the Rum Runner,
one of Birmingham’s most famous night clubs. Here Chapman entertained countless celebrities and within three years he had
become the manager of super group Black Sabbath. He went on to work for numerous other bands including Kiss, Van Halen and
Journey.