Kingpin’s empire got here crashing down after brothers’ bloody raid on stash home

On May 9, 2024

A violent raid by Salford brothers led to the downfall of one of the North West’s most powerful gangsters.

On the morning of Saturday, May 23, 2020, a brutal armed robbery took place in West Derby, Liverpool. The attack was carried out by two Salford gangsters and resulted in a father and son being brutally attacked and £1m worth of cocaine stolen. This set off a chain of events leading to the downfall of gangland leader Vincent Coggins.

Coggins was the head of an organised crime group involved in distributing large quantities of cocaine and heroin across the UK. Raised in Knowsley’s Cantril Farm during the 70s and 80s, Coggins and his brother Francis built their formidable drug gang from scratch, creating a cartel that rivalled criminal factions from Ireland, Eastern Europe and South America.

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Vincent Coggins was jailed for 28 years
(Image: NWROCU)

The targeted attack, conducted by rival gangsters who knew whose drugs were stashed there, saw the homeowner and his son severely assaulted and huge amounts of cocaine stolen. Vincent Coggins, along with his criminal associates including his right-hand man Edward Jarvis, resolved to identify who had taken them.

However, Vincent Coggins wasn’t just interested in retrieving his narcotics. He also expressed a desire to murder them, reports the Manchester Evening News. Unbeknownst to him and his criminal cohorts, the authorities were tracking their every move following the infamous EncroChat network hack.

This would ultimately lead to the gang’s downfall and Vincent Coggins’ arrest and conviction, but all the details have been withheld for four years . . . until now.

Brian Maxwell Junior, who was the target of the Coggins' manhunt, was jailed for 18 years and four months — Brian Maxwell Junior, who was the target of the Coggins’ manhunt, was jailed for 18 years and four months
(Image: Merseyside Police)

The Coggins brothers, Jarvis and several of their associates were career criminals who would turn their hand to whatever paid. But during the drugs boom of the 1990s, they saw the opportunity to get rich quick, moving to the Costa del Sol to establish an organised syndicate that smuggled cocaine from South America, through Europe and into the UK.

Once there, the gang, known in the criminal world as the Huyton Firm, had established supply networks that spread from Plymouth to Scotland. The quantities of class A drugs they dealt in resulted in extreme wealth. A court sentencing for Paul Fitzsimmons, a criminal associate who “answered directly to Francis Coggins,” previously heard the OCG’s overall involvement in class A drugs over a three-month period during 2020 was calculated at 148 kg of cocaine and 248 kg of heroin.

Kevin Rimmer will spend 16 years behind bars
(Image: NWROCU)

It remains unclear when the gang began using the encrypted messaging service, EncroChat. This platform was popular among high-profile criminals due to its perceived security. The pricey phones, costing between £1,200 and £1,500 for a six-month contract, were used by criminal organisations to orchestrate their illicit activities without fear of law enforcement interception.

Utilising the EncroChat network, Coggins and his crew arranged and executed numerous deals involving massive amounts of drugs and money. They liaised with other gangs in Merseyside and beyond, managing supply chains. They believed their communications were secure, but unbeknownst to them, police had gained access to EncroChat after it was hacked by French and Dutch authorities in early April 2020.

Paul Glynn got 11 years and two month behind bars
(Image: NWROCU)

Vincent Coggins was known as “moonlitboat”, while his cronies Michael Earle and Jarvis used “bladehedge” and “Softherb”. Paul Woodford, another member of the crew, went by “kingwasp”.

The gang’s other mates like Dean Borrows, Fitzsimmons, Darren Tierney and Kevin Rimmer were rumbled too, linked to “Olivescooter,” “Northknee”, “Scalpstaff” and “Sappystag” after they slipped up and shared personal info. Two more handles, “tallcanine” and “mixedjet”, popped up regularly in chats with Vincent Coggins, Jarvis, Earle and Woodford.

Darren Tierney will spend 12 years and nine months in prison
(Image: NWROCU)

Those sentenced as part of Operation SubZero were:

Vincent Coggins, 58, of Woodpecker Close, West Derby, who was jailed for 28 years after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs and conspiracy to commit blackmail.
Paul Woodford, 58, of Marl Road, Kirkby, was jailed for 24 years and six months after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs and conspiracy to commit blackmail.
Michael Earle, 48, of Wallace Drive, Huyton, was jailed for 11 years after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs and conspiracy to commit blackmail.
Darren Tierney, 46, of Chatham Street, Stockport, was jailed for 12 years and nine months after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs.
Paul Fitzsimmons, 60, of Birch Tree Court, West Derby, was jailed for 12 years and six months after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs.
Kevin Rimmer, 57, of Blacklow Brow, Huyton, was jailed for 16 years after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs.
Dean Borrows, 39, of Ledson Grove, Aughton, was jailed for 14 years and three months after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs.
Paul Glynn, 59, of Croxdale Road West, West Derby, was jailed for 11 years and two months after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs
Robert Jarvis, 59, of Breckside Park, Anfield, is due to be sentenced after he was found guilty at trial for conspiracy to supply class A drugs and conspiracy to commit blackmail.

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