Liverpool’s Mr Bigs f lee to Costa villas as Olivia’s murder lifts wall of silence
As two quizzed over shooting are released...
LIVERPOOL crime bosses have been fleeing to their foreign villas as the code of silence that stops people tipping off police has been shattered by the murder of Olivia Pratt-Korbel.
Sources revealed that gangsters are also rushing to get weapons and drugs out of the city as police crack down on organised crime with a series of raids in their hunt for the masked hitman who killed the nine-year-old on Monday.
Last night, two men, aged 36 and 33, were released on bail after being arrested on Friday on suspicion of murder.
In 2007 there were dozens of high-profile arrests after the gun murder of 11-year-old Rhys Jones shone a spotlight on Liverpool’s organised crime families. And now they fear their big homes in expensive suburbs will be again be
‘They will be laying low for a while’
swooped on as the horror of Olivia’s murder smashes the traditional wall of silence stopping the public from talking to police about illegal activities.
‘Right now they will be worried about having their homes raided. There will be a lot of sudden holidays to Spain and Turkey,’ said Dr Simon Harding, director of the National Centre for Gang Research.
On Monday evening, a masked gunman had chased heroin dealer Joseph Nee into the home of the schoolgirl’s innocent family.
As Olivia mother Cheryl desperately tried to shut their front door, the gunman opened fire, with one of the bullets blasting through her wrist and into Olivia’s chest. Nee was also wounded.
The Mail on Sunday understands the name of the alleged gunman circulating locally is that of a convicted armed robber whose brothers are believed to be drug kingpins. Police declined to comment.
Olivia’s family has said in an emotional statement: ‘If anyone knows anything, now is the time to speak up. It is not about being a snitch or a grass, it is about finding out who took our baby away from us.’
The crowd at Liverpool’s
Anfield stadium stood and applauded Olivia in the ninth minute of yesterday’s victory over Bournemouth, then sang You’ll Never Walk Alone. Skipper Jordan Henderson sported an ‘RIP Olivia’ shirt.
Dr Robert Hesketh, a criminologist at Liverpool John Moores University who researches gangs in the city, said its organised crime is run by established families who ‘don’t get their hands dirty’ and live in big houses in Crosby, Formby and Southport.
‘These are not kids hanging around on street corners,’ he said. ‘These are the guys in upmarket houses. They wear suits. None of them will be happy at all. They will be laying low for a while.
‘That has been warranted by the fact that the police have got leads – if it had been any ordinary event the police would have been up against it.’
Liverpool’s organised crime is run by local families, while cities such as London have seen foreign gangs from countries such as Albania move in.
Merseyside has long been associated with gun crime, and gangsters are still able to access handguns in a way they cannot in other places.
National Crime Agency analysis revealed that 70 per cent of links to weapons led back to Liverpool and the North West of England.