A former criminal from Liverpool says he is involved in negotiations with Hollywood-based production companies interested in making a film about his life. The Fitzgibbons stayed at the top of their game because they use extreme violence to protect their interests. Graham Johnson, crime writer It started in Liverpool, and it’s still mainly controlled in Liverpool—but it has hooks in Amsterdam, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, South America… all the usual suspect countries. I interviewed the Amsterdam police, and the first thing they told me is that they investigate everyone—Triads, Eastern European gangs, and the Italian and Russian Mafias—but they roll their eyes when you mention the "scousers" because they're the ones they have to deal with constantly. Journalist and author Graham Johnson is Mr Smith's business partner and has been leading the negotiations.

She was the so-called company secretary. She laundered the money and advised on how to avoid detection.Mr Smith says he is now involved in advanced stage negotiations with production companies and agents who are interested in dramatising his life story.

They had a villa in Spain bought with state handouts, while the drugs cash poured in and business was good. Mr Johnson was behind two investigative books on how Liverpool criminal John Haase managed to dupe the authorities into releasing him from prison several months into a 20-year-prison sentence for drug offences. To research his debut novel, Powder Wars (2004), Johnson spent several years on and off embedded with some of Britain's most notorious gangs. [ citation needed]To his credit The Debt Collector is one of the most successful true crime documentaries ever made, watched over 50 million times. The Fitzgibbon clan dealt in violence, money and drugs for more than a decade, amassed a fortune, yet claimed thousands of pounds in benefits, writes Channel 4 News Home Affairs Correspondent Simon Israel.

Liverpool's courts are some of the busiest in the UK, with a huge variety of cases being heard each week.He said: "Shaun has a great personal story, although unlike many of the people I wrote about he never sold drugs. My understanding is that Shaun needed a gun for his own protection because he was being threatened by dangerous people. "

Johnson worked at the Sunday Mirror from 1997 to 2005 and for six years was the newspaper's Investigations Editor. [1] [3] For three years they were a top Soca target. They used false passports to travel, booked flights they never caught, and paid for with cloned cards. Trips to Turkey were via circuitous routes. Johnson has covered stories including drug dealing in Britain, [5] people smuggling in Europe, child slavery in India and Pakistan, and war in the Balkans. Johnson's novels have been published by Mainstream Publishing and Simon & Schuster. [ citation needed]A lot of this is the social history of the city, with drug gangs becoming more and more powerful over recent decades. Her 40-year-old son Jason (above, left) was in charge of transport; her other son, Ian (above, right), aged 39, was in charge of logistics. Place of safety a b Siddle, John (2013-07-05). "The Devil struggled against demons, says author". Liverpool Echo . Retrieved 2023-01-21.