A suspected arsonist burned himself during a bungled gang attack on a Liverpool pub. Four masked men entered Taff’s Tavern in Derby Lane, Old Swan shortly before 10.30pm on Friday, while staff were still serving customers. One of the gang poured flammable liquid on the floor of the bar area before setting it alight and they fled the scene. None of the staff, customers or residents living in the flats above the pub were injured in the fire. But a man with burns was found a short distance away by paramedics.
Key members of Liverpool’s notorious Fitzgibbon crime family today faced lengthy jail terms over an international plot to flood Merseyside with super-strength heroin. Drug lords Jason and Ian Fitzgibbon were behind a lucrative plan to import 57kg of the class A drug from Turkey. But their scheme was foiled after Turkish police smashed a drugs racket in Istanbul – with the trail leading back to Liverpool. Jason, 40, and Ian, 39, appeared at Manchester crown court for sentencing, along with their mum Christine, 52, who admitted laundering drug cash found hidden in her Mossley Hill home.
Ian also admitted an £800k plot to flood Merseyside with 168,000 ecstasy tablets. Paul Mitchell, prosecuting, said: "The drug dealing involved huge quantities of both heroin and Ecstasy. "It involved the importation of multi kilogram quantities of the drugs into this country and then the onward supply of those drugs.
The scope of the enterprise was truly breathtaking. " Those involved had established criminal networks not only in the United Kingdom but in foreign countries including Turkey, from where they were obtaining massive quantities of heroin. "Huge quantities of money were generated by this activity and substantial sums were discovered secreted by the criminal group when their homes were searched. There is also evidence of criminal money being moved around the country by the group as well as being sent abroad by them." The court this morning heard that the 60%-pure heroin would have cost around 300,000 euros to buy wholesale from Turkey but generate almost £7m at street value.
Intelligence from England to the Turkish gendarmerie stopped the deal in its tracks and on September 26, 2011, five local drug traffickers were rounded up. In the boot of a car officers discovered 114 half kilo packs of heroin wrapped in brown tape. Fitzgibbon and his sidekick Danny Smith were booked to fly from Manchester to Zurich and then on to Istanbul. A return by the same route was booked and paid for – but neither man returned on that flight. Instead, Fitzgibbon bought a return flight on Turkish Airlines at the airport on July 10, paying cash.
The court heard how there were two Western Union money transfers sent from Liverpool to one of the Turks later caught red handed with the heroin. The aftermath of the failed drug deal in Turkey was recorded in part by a covert listening device. On October 6, Ian Fitzgibbon was recorded remarking: “That’s the story of Jason’s life, that Turkey thing. Three hundred quid…three hundred quid they owe us.” Police say ‘quid’ was a codeword for ‘thousand’, and 300,000 euros was the wholesale cost of the heroin.
A convicted killer and purported member of the Ghost Riders motorcycle gang is facing federal gun charges following a raid on the outlaw club’s Spanaway clubhouse. Karl “King Karl” Twilleager is accused of having six firearms – including a sawed-off shotgun – nearby when agents armed with a search warrant raided the Spanaway home early Thursday. Twilleager, 66, was previously convicted of murder and drug crimes, and is not legally able to have access to guns.
Members of a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives taskforce arrived at the 203rd Street Court East home at 6 a.m. and found Twilleager and two others inside. According to a taskforce member affidavit, agents found books, hats and posters associated with the Ghost Riders, as well as Twilleager’s “colors” – a leather vest bearing patches associated with the gang. Inside an outbuilding described as the Ghost Riders clubhouse, agents recovered a small amount of methamphetamine in a bag next to Twilleager’s credit cards and ID, the task force officer said in court papers. Also seized were two handguns, a rifle and a shortened shotgun without a serial number.
Twilleager was arrested at the scene and was charged later Thursday with unlawful gun possession. He remained jailed following an initial appearance at the federal courthouse in Tacoma. According to charging papers, Twilleager was previously convicted of second-degree murder in a 1993 killing in Grant County and was sentenced to 12 years in state prison. Prior to that, Twilleager served time in Oregon for drug possession.
Toronto’s latest gang sweep, albeit one with an unprecedented twist, will now move into its next, predictable phase, if history is any guide. On Friday, a team of seven guns-and-gangs prosecutors assigned to Project Traveller were efficiently dealing with a list of about 35 defendants, moving quickly to consent to the release of people facing less serious charges and scheduling bail hearings for those in custody facing gangland, firearm and drug trafficking charges. Those hearings are expected to run until the end of June. While family members are anxious for bail hearings to take place, some lawyers think it is better to wait a few weeks until the glare of publicity dies down. “This is a crisis-type atmosphere which does not serve the interests of the accused in obtaining bail,” defence lawyer Dirk Derstine said Friday in the Finch Ave. W. courtroom where Project Traveller has landed. “My experience is it’s better to wait for the crisis to dissipate to get the fairest hearing.” But Nathan Gorham, the lawyer for Muhammad Khattak, says he’s working toward a quick bail review “because my client is seriously injured and needs medical attention, he has no criminal record, and there are significant questions about the strength of the allegations at this point in time.”
The Ottawa police guns and gangs unit is asking for the public's help to solve three shootings in Ottawa in 12 hours. In the most recent case, a woman who was sleeping at her home on Ritchie Street woke up to a loud bang at about 4:30 a.m. Friday. She thought something had fallen and didn't call 911, police said. But later in the morning, as she was taking her children out to school, she found a bullet-sized hole in her window and called police. When officers arrived they traced the possible trajectory of the bullet and found it lodged in an adjacent wall. The guns and gangs unit has no witnesses and is urging anyone with information to come forward. Man shot twice in arm 3 hours earlier About three hours earlier, a man was seriously hurt after being shot in the arm twice during an incident in Lowertown, police say. Police were called to the 200-block of Friel Street, near Rideau Street, at about 1:30 a.m. after reports of shots being fired. The man who was shot was driving a car at the time and managed to drive to the corner of Rideau and Charlotte Street a few blocks away, where he caught up with police. He was taken to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries. An "associate" of the man, who was there at the time, wasn't hurt, police said in a news release. No suspect was arrested in connection with the shooting later Friday morning, but the victim and his associate are facing several drug charges related to marijuana possession, police said. Their names are not being released. Bayshore shooting in broad daylight The first shooting happened Thursday in a parking lot at the Bayshore Shopping Centre in broad daylight. Police were called to the parking lot at about 4:40 p.m. after 911 callers reported shots being fired. Witnesses told police that a black car, possibly a Mercedes, was seen fleeing the area at high speed, and that the car then slowed down to let a man out. That man then ran away, police said. No evidence was recovered from the scene and police have few witnesses. Officers are now searching for two possible suspects in connection with the case.
Brian McConville , from Dublin, was detained on a European Arrest Warrant in Germany. The 29-year-old was named as a suspect in a Spanish police appeal two months after Londoner Paul Feathers was stabbed to death at his flat in Benalmadena on April 21, 2010. Mr Feathers (32) was attacked after getting into an argument with two men he let into his flat in Benalmadena. Mr McConville will appear at a court in Benalmadena after being extradited from Germany. Mr Feathers's killing is understood to have been drug related.
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