Two drug lords whose bloody reign impressed brutal scenes in hit TV drama Sherwood nonetheless have a ‘large affect’ on the streets, a gang professional has warned.
Infamous Nottingham gang chief Colin Gunn and ‘worldwide medication kingpin’ Robert Dawes are each serving prolonged jail sentences in Class A prisons – the previous in Britain and the latter in France.
Colin and his brother David Gunn constructed up a multi-million-pound empire primarily based on medication, extortion and violent crime through the early 2000s when Nottingham had a repute for being Britain’s gun crime capital.
The town dubbed ‘Shottingham’ on the peak of its brutal crime wave, a lot of the violence was was being fuelled by Dawes, who was working his cartel from Spain till he was arrested in 2015 for trafficking 1.3 tonnes of cocaine into Europe.
The petty prison who went from rising up on an property in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire to changing into a narcotics boss with hyperlinks to South America was jailed for 22 years in 2018.
Colin Gunn, whose savage reign included orchestrating the execution of grandparents John and Joan Stirland in a savage revenge hit, was jailed for all times in 2006. He’s at the moment an inmate at high-security HMP Lengthy Lartin in Evesham, Worcestershire.
MailOnline can reveal immediately how regardless of each gang lords being behind bars, Gunn and Dawes are nonetheless involved.
Nottingham crime boss Colin Gunn (pictured) was jailed in 2006 for conspiring to homicide John and Joan Stirland
Robert Dawes (pictured) was pulling the strings in Nottingham from Spain till he was arrested in 2015 for trafficking 1.3 tonnes of cocaine into Europe
Writer Carl Fellstrom, whose guide ‘Hoods’ offers an in-depth historical past of Nottingham’s crime gangs, advised MailOnline: ‘Colin Gunn and Robert Dawes nonetheless talk with one another proper now. They’re each in Class A prisons. One’s in France and one’s within the UK.
‘I feel from that, you possibly can confirm that they’re nonetheless doing enterprise. So though their energy at its base in Nottinghamshire has been pretty nicely dismantled, they’re nonetheless working.
‘I feel that Colin Gunn nonetheless pulls the strings on the property, and continues to have an affect. However it’s not the identical affect as he had throughout that 2000 interval the place to his individuals, his phrase was the regulation.’
In 2010, Gunn was caught utilizing Fb to threaten his enemies from behind pars. In a single submit, he wrote: ‘I shall be dwelling someday and I can not wait to look into sure individuals’s eyes and see the worry of me being there.’
In one other, he mentioned: ‘It is good to have an outlet to let you understand how I’m, a few of you can be in for a superb slagging, some have let me down badly, and shall be named and shamed, f****** rats.’
Though Gunn and Dawes have been initially working round their very own patches, Nottingham grew to become a hub for exercise with gangs in Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and London because of its geography within the Midlands.
Dawes was the extra important determine as a result of he was worldwide and the Gunns have been his purchasers. However though it was a enterprise relationship, they have been additionally shut, Mr Fellstrom explains.
‘Though Dawes was supplying all the pieces and had way more energy globally, Colin Gunn had the facility on that property,’ he mentioned.
‘However his [power] did not translate to energy past these shores, he wasn’t a world prison. Dawes very a lot was, coping with individuals at supply in South America relating to cocaine and at supply in Afghanistan relating to heroin.
‘He additionally had set arrange in Netherlands to provide amphetamine and ecstasy. He is price some huge cash. One of many ironic issues is that they’ve by no means actually been capable of monitor all of that cash down. He was fairly intelligent at that.’
That is the second Dawes was arrested following a raid on his mansion in Benalmadena, Spain
Dawes was considered of being one of many greatest drug sellers in Europe, working an empire that stretched throughout eight international locations and dealt in cocaine, heroin, cash laundering and homicide. Pictured: Medicine that have been seized
Officers are pictured arresting medication kingpin Robert Dawes after they raided the house of the UK prison in Spain
Colin Gunn (pictured) was jailed in 2006. He’s being held at HMP Lengthy Lartin
Dawes was convicted of arranging an estimated £216million price of cocaine to be trafficked into France on an Air France flight from Venezuela to Paris.
His prison empire stretched from Portugal, France and Belgium to Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Venezuela and Mexico.
He grew up on the Leamington property in Nottinghamshire, and is assumed to have begun his prison profession within the Nineteen Nineties working as an enforcer.
Dawes left Nottinghamshire for the Costa del Sol in 2009, shifting to a villa within the resort of Benalmadena.
His brother John additionally acquired a 24-year sentence for drug dealing and cash laundering in 2005, however is now free.
When requested how harmful it’s that Gunn and Dawes are nonetheless speaking, he mentioned: ‘These guys don’t get any youthful and I do not see them being all for creating the type of violence that was kicking off within the 2000s.
‘The opposite factor that folks have to recollect is that these guys nonetheless have large quantities of affect when it comes to they’ve good contacts out within the setting, that may get issues sorted out for them, though they’re in jail they usually even have nonetheless have assist on the estates the place they as soon as lived.
‘So though their basic degree of energy is diminished, they’ll nonetheless be harmful in in respect to different people.
‘However to not the neighborhood anymore. I do not see that that they nonetheless have massive swathes of the neighborhood behind them.
‘I feel that each one modified as a result of the police ultimately obtained their act collectively and and took down crucial elements of that and likewise re-engaged with the neighborhood which was actually vital.
‘As a result of the one motive why these guys gained energy was as a result of among the neighborhood believed that they taken care of them higher than the police did.
‘I feel very a lot the the ambiance has modified in in Nottingham.
‘Now if the neighborhood sees one thing flawed, they are going to truly ring the police, whereas earlier than they tended to ring up Colin Gunn on the property.
‘It isn’t what it was however you need to type of additionally taking the truth that the ripple results of all the issues that did go on will go on for years for the households that have been all impacted by all of it. It does not go away.’
The violence got here to a head when Jamie Gunn (pictured, in a tribute) threw Michael O’Brien out of the Sporting Likelihood pub
O’Brien (left) and an affiliate tried to kill Gunn however as an alternative fatally wounded Marvyn Bradshaw (proper). Jamie Gunn later died from pneumonia after his life fell aside after the demise of his finest good friend, Mr Bradshaw
In a revenge plot, Colin Gunn conspired to kill Michael O’Brien’s mom Joan Stirland (left) and step-father John (proper), who have been discovered lifeless in Lincolnshire
The violence in Nottingham got here to a head in August 2003, when the Gunn brothers’ 19-year-old nephew Jamie was a bouncer on the Sporting Likelihood pub within the Bullwell space of town, the place the crew would meet.
When convicted prison Michael O’Brien was refused entry to the pub, he returned with an affiliate, Gary Salmon, and a single-barrelled shotgun.
Jamie’s good friend Marvyn Bradshaw arrived to drive him dwelling however as they left, O’Brien and Salmon approached the automobile, with one firing a shot. It missed Jamie and struck and killed Marvin.
After O’Brien’s arrest, bullets have been fired into home windows of the home of his mom, Joan Stirland, and her husband, John. They fled to Lincolnshire however refused witness safety.
Jamie’s life was destroyed by his good friend’s demise and he died from pneumonia after turning to alcohol and medicines to deal with his grief.
Devastated on the demise of his younger nephew, Colin Gunn promised to actual revenge on O’Brien, who would later be jailed for 18 years for Mr Bradshaw’s homicide.
Six days after Jamie died, a success squad of Gunn and his associates tracked down the Stirlands to their Lincolnshire dwelling on August 8 2004.
The gunmen, who haven’t been recognized, killed Mr Stirland on the couch whereas his spouse was shot of their bed room.
No one has ever been charged over the double execution, however Colin Gunn was sentenced to life with a minimal of 35 years for conspiring to homicide the couple.
When the homicide trial got here to an finish at Birmingham Crown Court docket in March 2006, Gunn turned to the jury and mentioned: ‘Thanks, you scum luggage. I hope you die of most cancers.’ He then turned on the decide and referred to as him a paedophile.
Colin’s brother David, who now claims to be crime-free, was additionally charged in relation with the murders however was cleared. John Russell, of Bulwell, and Michael McNee, no mounted abode, have been handed sentences of 30 years and 25 years for conspiring.
Danielle Beccan (pictured), 14, was shot as she walked dwelling from a Goose Truthful by means of the St Ann’s space simply two months after the Stirlands’ demise
Junior Andrew (left) and Mark Kelly (proper) have been discovered responsible of murdering Danielle Beccan in 2005
Critically-acclaimed sequence BBC Sherwood, which is ready in Nottingham, was impressed by real-life murders in 2004, returned for a second sequence earlier this month (Pictured is David Morrissey as Ian St Clair)
One other harmless sufferer caught up in Nottingham’s horrifying tit-for-tat gang violence was 14-year-old Danielle Beccan.
The schoolgirl was gunned down in a drive by capturing as she walked dwelling from a good by means of the St Ann’s space of town simply two months after the Stirlands’ demise in October 2004.
Danielle was shot by two gunmen from The Meadows space of Nottingham who had ‘historic beef’ with St Anne’s.
Mark Kelly, then 23, and Junior Andrew, then 26, fired from a automobile on the teenager and her mates as they walked dwelling, Birmingham Crown Court docket heard.
Danielle fell to the bottom fatally wounded as her mates tried to run to security.
Her mom Paula Platt was on the scene inside minutes and cradled the teenager in her arms as they awaited for an ambulance in an alleyway.
In 2005, Kelly and Andrews have been discovered responsible of killing {the teenager} and jailed for not less than 32 years.
Trial decide Mr Justice Butterfield mentioned: ‘You robbed a vibrant younger woman of her life and blighted eternally the lives of her household and mates.
‘This was a horrible killing. You armed yourselves with a handgun and set out cruising round St Ann’s searching for seemingly victims. ‘It was what you advised (a witness within the case) you needed to do.
‘Your pathological and illogical hatred of everybody from St Ann’s was so intense you probably did certainly need to kill.’
Kelly later had his sentence decreased to a minimal of 29 years on attraction.
‘The ripple results from that exact killing have been actually massive due to her age, and the truth that, it was the case of anyone being within the flawed place on the flawed time,’ Mr Fellstrom defined.
‘That historical past [of gang rivalry] went again fairly a number of years, again into the eighties and it was completely tragic.
Danielle’s surprising homicide was the entrance web page of the Every day Mail on October 11 2004
‘It was kind of the start of what was to develop into a a reasonably troublesome interval for Nottinghamshire Police which wasn’t helped, possibly, by among the headlines that that got here off the again of that which was ‘Shottingham’ and ‘Gun Crime Capital’ and so forth,’ he mentioned.
Mr Fellstrom mentioned that though the variety of murders has definitely gone down from that interval, he fears it nonetheless has a poor repute relating to crime – as individuals nonetheless seek advice from town as ‘Shottingham’ every time there’s an incident.
On the peak of its crime, mother and father had stopped permitting their kids to use to Nottingham as a result of they didn’t need to say their children have been going there.
Mr Fellstrom was talking as James Graham’s Sherwood returned to our screens for a second season.
The drama, though fictionalised, is impressed by the true life murders that rocked Nottingham in 2004 throughout a time of giant crime. It is available in a interval when neighborhood was already fractured by the 1984-85 miners’ strike.
Mr Fellstrom mentioned: ‘As a drama, I feel it is sensible, and it completely evokes among the points that result in these sorts of explosions of crime that are the truth that so lots of the communities have been hit by the the demise of the mining business.
So I feel that basic theme that he is weaved all through the entire of the 2 sequence could be very pertinent, as a result of, loads of this battle is basically all about cash, and it is about surviving.
‘And the hole that exists between the haves and the have nots, which has been festering for fairly some time as we have seen because of the current riots.’
