High Parker ‘Riggers’
THE murky underbelly of Southport’s underworld can be laid bare after major blows were dealt to its most maligned influences.
For two years the High Parkers dominated the drugs trade in Southport, controlling illicit markets that thrived largely unseen by visitors to the seaside holiday destination.
But reminders of their presence came in sporadic explosions of violence, including the killing of an innocent dad in a savage attack on the resort’s most famous street.
And the Visiter can now reveal how one of their most prominent figures was a recurring feature in the background of the trial that followed a murder led by two violent drug dealers seeking to establish a foothold in what was considered High Parkers’ turf.
The High Parkers were, in essence, a local street gang that controlled Southport’s cocaine and cannabis markets from their base on the High Park estate.
They were a network of troublemakers, many of whom were well known to police and residents long before they matured from anti-social behaviour to organised crime.
Key figures included two of the notorious Gelling brothers, Jordan and James, who were both among nearly two dozen men and women jailed for a combined total of more than 125 years across Liverpool Crown Court hearings during the summer.
Their success was in part due to their ability to operate in a bubble from the rest of Merseyside’s underworld.
Unlike parts of South Sefton, where friction between competing gangs can lead to outbreaks of gunfire and violence, the town is, in comparison, rarely the scene of similar high-profile, headline-grabbing gang trouble.
This may, in part, have been due to the High Parkers’ ability to maintain a tight grip on their turf.
They had near complete control of the “order to deliver” drugs business and, while it was accepted other cocaine and cannabis suppliers may have operated in the same space, they were restricted to low-level business that, at best, focused on social settings like bars and clubs.
With their power base being the same streets as their business, the High Parkers were therefore able to prevent competitors from gaining a foothold on their territory.
This is not to say the gang was not capable of violence – and there is evidence members had access to a shotgun.
But typically it was reserved for those who fell into their debt.
The worst attack carried out by members was not on a rival, or a customer, however.
Instead it was on a Bulgarian dad who was killed in an unprovoked beating on Lord Street.
On June 1, 2019, Ventislav Marginov was set upon by members of the High Parkers in front of
Thomas Rigby of the High Parkers; above, Karl Corson and Ryan Smith, seen above right smashing into flats a week before they murdered Stephen McGuire in Southport – with one of them shouting ‘you work for Riggers’ during the attack
his two sons.
The family had just watched Liverpool win the Champions League when the attack unfolded, James Gelling punching the 51-yearold in the face without provocation.
Seven members of the High Parkers were present, with both of Mr Marginov’s sons and one of their friends also assaulted.
Mr Marginov died as a result of his injuries and Gelling was sentenced to six years in jail after he later admitted manslaughter.
Prosecutors said the attack highlighted the ease with which the gang would use violence.
When it came to serious gang-on-gang trouble, the High Parkers were typically the victims, or on the periphery.
In July 2018, Thomas Rigby and Jesse Fashoni were travelling in a Ford Transit in Banks, just north of Southport, when they were shot at by four men in balaclavas.
The following month another gang member, Peter Ball, turned up at Southport General Hospital with a shotgun wound to his left inner thigh but refused to engage with police other than to say he did not feel under further threat.
While the High Parkers’ violence, with the exception of the street attack on Mr Marginov, typically went under the radar, that does not mean the streets were free from trouble.
The most brutal recent case in the town was the murder of Stephen Maguire, who was shot dead at his partner’s Birkdale home in March 2020.
The 27-year-old was hit by gunfire twice in a late-night attack on Guildford Road.
While the incident had the features of a scrambler bike raid, the motive remains unclear. No member of the High Parkers was responsible.
But the name of Rigby, known as “Riggers”, was a recurring feature of the trial of the four men who were convicted of the murder of Mr Maguire. A witness to the shooting believed the gunmen even asked Mr Maguire whether he worked for “Riggers” before firing at him.
Two of those men were Karl Corson and Ryan Smith, drug dealers from Melling and Liverpool respectively, who had turned their attention north to sell drugs in Southport.
They sold heroin and crack cocaine, neither of which were products offered by the High Parkers. This means it was unclear whether or not there was friction between the two groups.
Yet in the months before Mr Maguire was killed they were two out of town dealers attempting to establish a customer base in Southport during the peak of the High Parkers’ powers.
And they brought violence with them.
One week before Mr Maguire was shot dead, Corson and Smith were caught on CCTV smashing through doors in a block of flats in Southport while armed with a handgun and a crowbar.
On the night of the murder, their terrible act was preceded by the gunpoint kidnapping of two teenagers.
One of those victims claimed, before he was told to get into the murderers’ car, they questioned whether he worked for “Riggers”.
And a friend of Mr Maguire who was present
when he was shot said he too heard one of the men shout to the victim: “You work for Riggers.”
The witness said Mr Maguire denied this and that he did not know who “Riggers” was.
The court also heard details that the “Riggers” in question had been targeted in a shooting in Banks, now known to be the balaclava gang attack.
Rigby was the High Parker who controlled the network’s cannabis operation.
Liverpool Crown Court heard one of the kidnapped teens claim he had “dropped” cannabis for Mr Maguire, who was described as a “heavy cannabis smoker” by his girlfriend, though she said she was not aware of him ever dealing the drug.
Smith would go on to tell the jury he knew noone by the name “Riggers” and, when asked whether it crossed his mind his Class A business might have encroached on another dealer’s patch, said he was not interested in “territory”.
While Rigby, of Bull Cop in Formby, oversaw the High Parkers’ cannabis operation, it is believed he then became involved in the cocaine side of the gang’s business after Nathan Ball, the most senior figure, lost faith in him.
That fall from grace followed the police interception of two shipments of cannabis from the USA.
In both cases Border Force officers at the Heathrow Worldwide Distribution Centre intercepted parcels addressed to Rigby that were labelled as children’s toys but in fact contained cannabis.
The seizures, in February and March 2020, saw a total of 448g of the Class B drug with a street value of £7,720 recovered.
The High Parkers were busted in Merseyside Police raids carried out in October 2020 - just weeks before the trial of those later convicted of the murder of Stephen Maguire.
This meant the Visiter could only fully detail Thomas Rigby’s position in the Southport underworld, and properly identify him as the