Liverpool Narcos TV -
19,493. [jaunty music] Liverpool. A world city at the heart of the new county of Merseyside. It’s a city full of contrasts. A kaleidoscope of contradictions … (Liverpool & Heroin & Drugs & Gangs UK: Liverpool & Smuggling & Docks & Addiction & Great Britain & Miscarriages of Justice: Showers & Imports) Liverpool Narcos I: Heroin, public information film, Sky Documentaries 2021
54,758. We don’t class ourselves as being English: we’re the People’s Republic of Liverpool [laughs]. (Liverpool & Heroin & Drugs & Gangs UK: Liverpool & Smuggling & Docks & Addiction & Great Britain & Miscarriages of Justice: Showers & Imports) ibid. old lady in greenhouse
54,788. We have a degree of accepted lawlessness here. It’s like Cowboys and Indians. They don’t follow the rules ‘’cause they’re outlaws … the epicentre of drugs … Welcome to Liverpool. (Liverpool & Heroin & Drugs & Gangs UK: Liverpool & Smuggling & Docks & Addiction & Great Britain & Miscarriages of Justice: Showers & Imports) ibid. comments
54,795. What was it about Liverpool that made it such a big player in thee drug trade? The docks? (Liverpool & Heroin & Drugs & Gangs UK: Liverpool & Smuggling & Docks & Addiction & Great Britain & Miscarriages of Justice: Showers & Imports) ibid. Michael Showers, the boss
54,798. The hard part was getting it off [ship]. Customs were very very alert in Liverpool. Our firm had people who had relatives in senior positions. And that was it. It was just a matter of choosing the right time for them to take it off. Then pass it over to our sales division. And our sales division did their work. And then when I came home, just counted the money. (Liverpool & Heroin & Drugs & Gangs UK: Liverpool & Smuggling & Docks & Addiction & Great Britain & Miscarriages of Justice: Showers & Imports) ibid.
54,807. Pleading guilty at 15 to something I hadn’t done was my greatest regret. My greatest regret. Because that started it all. (Liverpool & Heroin & Drugs & Gangs UK: Liverpool & Smuggling & Docks & Addiction & Great Britain & Miscarriages of Justice: Showers & Imports) ibid.
54,814. In the ’80s a number of things conspired to bring brown smoke-able heroin to Liverpool … 47% of black workers unemployed, 43% of white workers [news clip] … No opportunities whatsoever … Young people weren’t of any value to society, or so they felt. And then of course we had the Toxteth riots in ’81 … A visitor from the US came I n the 80s and said, This is like Beirut. This is like bombed-out shell, a husk of a city and a number of other things … (Liverpool & Heroin & Drugs & Gangs UK: Liverpool & Smuggling & Docks & Unemployment & Addiction & Great Britain & Riots & Miscarriages of Justice: Showers & Smoking & Imports) ibid. comments
54,815. The game-changer was a cheap, high-grade smoking heroin became available. It was from Pakistan. And I’ve got Pakistani family. So I immediately kind of seized the opportunity to capitalize on that. Yeah. (Liverpool & Heroin & Drugs & Gangs UK: Liverpool & Smuggling & Docks & Pakistan & Addiction & Great Britain & Miscarriages of Justice: Showers & Smoking & Imports) ibid.
54,818. Samples: if you went to source in Pershawa, you can buy a kilo over there for £2,500, 3K. Yeah, and that would be 80-90%. (Liverpool & Heroin & Drugs & Gangs UK: Liverpool & Smuggling & Docks & Pakistan & Addiction & Great Britain & Miscarriages of Justice: Showers & Smoking & Imports) ibid.
54,822. It was like total destruction. It spread like cancer. Straightening out your foil, putting in your little bit of powder, at the corner where you wanted it. Getting a little pleat in your foil. Tilting it was little bit. Your flame underneath the powder. And then inhaling. Everything seemed to slow down a bit. You feel comfortably numb. No more worries, no stress, nuttin’, just comfy. (Liverpool & Heroin & Drugs & Gangs UK: Liverpool & Smuggling & Docks & Miscarriages of Justice: Showers & Smoking & Addiction & Great Britain & Smoking & Imports) ibid. Billy Moore
54,832. It was an epidemic that happened in this city. You know this city was flooded with narcotics. (Liverpool & Heroin & Drugs & Gangs UK: Liverpool & Smuggling & Docks & Epidemic & Addiction & & Great Britain & Miscarriages of Justice: Showers & Smoking & Epidemic & Imports) ibid.
140,122. Everyone’s on heroin? How the hell did that happen? (Liverpool & Heroin & Drugs & Gangs UK: Liverpool & Smuggling & Docks & Epidemic & Addiction & & Great Britain & Miscarriages of Justice: Showers & Imports) ibid.
140,123. Operation Rainman surveillance … Suddenly, these guys were doing seriously well. And flaunting it. And that kind of rankled with us. So we kind of took that personal. (Liverpool & Heroin & Drugs & Gangs UK: Liverpool & Smuggling & Docks & Surveillance & Miscarriages of Justice: Showers & Epidemic & Addiction & Great Britain & Import) ibid. rozzers
140,124. This was the early ‘80s. You drove round in a white Rolls Royce? (Liverpool & Heroin & Drugs & Gangs UK: Liverpool & Smuggling & Docks & Surveillance & Miscarriages of Justice: Showers & Epidemic & Addiction & Great Britain & Imports) ibid. rozzers to Showers
140,125. So in 1983 the police tried to prosecute Michael Showers for the second time in short succession. On this occasion is was for possession of a fire-arm, cannabis, and heroin. The case collapsed in court. And Michael Showers to this day maintains that the case was never legitimate against him. In effect he was fitted up. (Liverpool & Heroin & Drugs & Gangs UK: Liverpool & Smuggling & Docks & Surveillance & Addiction & Great Britain & Miscarriages of Justice: Showers & Imports) ibid.
140,126. British Customs subsequently bring the heroin into the UK. (Liverpool & Heroin & Drugs & Gangs UK: Liverpool & Smuggling & Docks & Addiction & Great Britain & Miscarriages of Justice: Showers & Imports) ibid.
54,843. Rozzer: You were convicted of smuggling heroin?
Showers: Yes, convicted on fabricated evidence by Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise. (Liverpool & Heroin & Drugs & Gangs UK: Liverpool & Smuggling & Docks & Addiction & Great Britain & Miscarriages of Justice: Showers & Imports) ibid.
54,848. And he was sentenced to twenty years in prison. Which for that amount of drugs was extraordinary … The system wanted to make an example of him … (Liverpool & Heroin & Drugs & Gangs UK: Liverpool & Smuggling & Docks & Addiction & Great Britain & Miscarriages of Justice: Showers & Imports) ibid.
54,850. In 1991 Michael went to prison for 20 years. He served 10. Then in 2010 he was arrested in Turkey and charged with intent to supply heroin internationally. He denied the charges but was sentenced to 10 years in a Turkish prison. He returned home to Liverpool in 2016. (Liverpool & Heroin & Drugs & Gangs UK: Liverpool & Smuggling & Docks & Addiction & Great Britain & Miscarriages of Justice: Showers & Imports) ibid.