Mersey drug gangs: how Liverpool's influence spreads across UK and beyond - Liverpool Local News - News - Liverpool Echo: "SINCE the late 1970s and early 1980s, Liverpool crime gangs have been a dominant force on the UK drug scene. The reach of the families and gangs who control the lucrative trade stretches far beyond the city boundaries.
City crime syndicates are known to have a major say in the sale of drugs as far north as Inverness and as far south as Cornwall, with Hull to the east and North Wales to the west.
Many of the places now seen as Liverpool strongholds have good transport links for moving drugs about, are hit by deprivation or have a mass market.
Places like Blackpool and Devon were firm family holiday favourites in the 1960s and 1970s before they became favoured spots to make ill-gotten gains – police in Torquay in the 1980s even had a team nicknamed “the Scouse Squad” to deal solely with the influx of Mersey crooks.
The travelling band of football fans from the city who toured the country following the successful Liverpool and Everton sides of the early 1980s also brought new opportunities.
Supporters who made a weekend out of games in other towns and cities soon spotted possible new ventures and hook-ups with local criminals.
Now, with high-speed rail links, motorways dissecting the country and cheap domestic flights, drug barons and their couriers can be anywhere and back within a day.
One underworld source said: “Hull is a bit of a stronghold now. There is the ferry service to the Hook of Holland, which is a long-standing route used by Scousers and their contacts and Hull is also a quite deprived area with a long history of drug problems."
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