The Inside Story of Britain's Biggest Drugs Gang

The Cartel

The first part of a revealing investigation by bestselling true-crime author Graham Johnson

Graham Johnson is an investigative reporter and crime writer. His previous true-crime publications include the bestselling Powder Wars, Football and Gangsters, Druglord and The Devil, and he is also the author of the acclaimed crime fiction title Soljas. He lives in London.

A global workforce. Billions in sales. But, unlike Tesco or BP, few have heard of it. The Cartel is Britain’s biggest drugs organisation, a shadowy network stretching from the freezing, fog-banks of the Mersey to the glittering marinas of Marbella, from the coffee shops of Amsterdam to the trading floors of Canary Wharf. 
 
Run by godfathers as rich as Branson but kept in line by a new generation of teenage killers. Here is the inside story.

Guns, Powder and Pay-Offs

Druglord

A shocking account of the dealings of infamous drug baron John Haase, including Home Secretary Michael Howard's involvement in his case

A serious exposé of organised crime that puts the myth of the cheeky Liverpool scally firmly into perspective - a cracking read

Why did the future Conservative Party leader [Michael Howard] let Britain's biggest drug lord out of jail? That is the question at the heart of this deeply-researched investigation

Graham Johnson was formerly the investigations editor at the Sunday Mirror. He is also the bestselling author of Powder Wars and Football and Gangsters.

When ruthless drug baron John Haase was sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment for heroin-trafficking in 1995, it was a major victory for Customs and the police. But in a shock move, after Haase and his partner Paul Bennett had served only 11 months, then Home Secretary Michael Howard signed a Royal Pardon for their release. 
 
Howard defended his decision by revealing that Haase and Bennett had become invaluable informants. But Haase had in fact duped the authorities, and far from being forced into hiding as a supergrass, he gained new kudos among the criminal underworld for beating the system so audaciously. 
 
Graham Johnson interviewed Haase at Whitemoor prison and has obtained a copy of his sworn affidavit revealing the truth behind the Royal Pardon scandal. Allegations of huge bribes, mass fabrication of evidence and dark powers at the heart of the justice system make this an explosive exposé of Britain's number-one drug kingpin.

How Organised Crime Controls the Beautiful Game

Football and Gangsters

An explosive in-depth investigation into the sinister underbelly of modern soccer

Loyal followers of "the beautiful game" will be astonished by some of the revelations in this fascinating book, which spreads the net far and wide

'Football and Gangsters will tell you more than you thought you wanted to know'

This is a book that really gets under the skin of "the beautiful game"

Former investigations editor at the Sunday Mirror, Graham Johnson is now a full-time crime writer and author of the bestselling Powder Wars and Druglord.

Who controls football in Britain today? The FA? The clubs? The fans? The shocking reality is that organised crime is moving in more aggressively than a Wayne Rooney tackle and there's little the authorities can do about it. 
 
Football and Gangsters is a revealing investigation into how organised crime has begun to take hold behind the scenes of professional football. Michael Owen, Rio Ferdinand and Robbie Fowler are just some of the sport's big names to have fallen foul of the game's godfathers and paid the price. Their alarming stories are told here. 
 
Criminal organisations have manoeuvred themselves into a position of power in football. Drug dealers launder money by buying clubs; hooligan gangs have muscled their way into the boardroom; and the influence of Asian betting rings continues to grow. Through a series of dangerous undercover investigations, along with interviews with players, club officials, police and the underworld figures responsible, the sensational evidence is laid bare in this book.

Gang War

Bestselling true-crime author Graham Johnson's acclaimed first novel, based on real-life events

A rip-roaring plot set against a backdrop of gang shootings, burning skylines and the heavens filled with police choppers and unmanned surveillance drones . . . [A] terrifying insight into gang culture

[Johnson] is an expert on inner-city life and his grasp of gang culture seeps through every page . . . a bloody good read

Graham Johnson is an investigative reporter and crime writer. This is his first novel, following the true-crime publications Powder Wars, Football and Gangsters, Druglord and The Devil.

'If those pricks want a war, lad, we'll show what some proper soljas can do.' 
 
Dylan, Nogger and their crew 'tax' rival drug dealers using a red-hot steam iron and celebrate by making videos of themselves raping wannabe WAG s. In their world, guns and knives are as common as mobile phones. But when an innocent three-year-old girl is killed in the crossfire, extreme measures are brought in to combat gang warfare. 
 
From burgeoning organised crime to warped celebrity culture, Gang War is an apocalyptic vision of a world in freefall. 
 
The gripping debut novel by the bestselling author of Powder Wars is a mind-blowing tale that is all the more shocking because it is inspired by real-life events.

Britain's Most Feared Underworld Taxman

The Devil

A chilling insight into the world of organised crime from a former member of Curtis Warren's cartel

Graham Johnson is the author of the bestselling Powder Wars, Football and Gangsters and Druglord. He is a former investigations editor at the Sunday Mirror and during ten years on Fleet Street covered subjects including child slavery, people smuggling, drugs and the Balkan wars.

Drug dealers beware. The Devil is coming to get you. 
 
 Gangster Stephen French invented the perfect crime: robbing drug barons of their huge fortunes. In SAS-style swoops, French raided their fortified mansions and tortured them with horrifying violence until they paid up. Through 'taxing' the richest and most powerful crimelords in the UK, he netted over £20 million. 
 
 French was no ordinary criminal. He was a world-champion fighter, he studied psychology at university to master mind-control techniques, and he used the teachings of Machiavelli and samurai warriors to outwit his enemies. The Devil also reveals French's complex relationship with Curtis Warren, the wealthiest criminal in British history. The two were childhood pals, then partners and finally bitter enemies. 
 
 Now a legitimate businessman, French built up a multimillion-pound empire. Having eventually turned his back on his former life, he is now seeking to set the record straight.

The Supergrass who Brought Down Britain's Biggest Drug Dealers

Powder Wars

'An astonishing story' - Sunday Mirror 
 
'The best gangster book of modern times' - Donal MacIntyre 
 
Gangster Paul Grimes was a one-man crimewave with a breathtaking capacity to steal. Any villains who got in his way were made to pay - often with their blood. But when his son died of a drugs overdose, the old-school mobster swore revenge on the new generation of Liverpool-based heroin and cocaine dealers. Against all odds, he turned undercover informant. 
 
The first gangster to fall foul of Grimes' change of heart was Curtis Warren, aka 'Cocky', the wealthiest and most successful criminal in British history. Grimes infiltrated his cocaine cartel and led Customs to the largest narcotics seizure on record, putting Warren in the dock in the drugs trial of the twentieth century. 
 
After turning his attention to heroin baron John Haase, Grimes rose to become the boss of the villain's notoriously bloodthirsty 'security firm' - a professional gang of racketeers addicted to cocaine, explosive violence and non-stop criminality. But as his net began to tighten, Grimes was confronted with the ultimate dilemma. He discovered his second son was now a rising star in the drugs business. The life-or-death question was: should he shop him or not? 
 
Powder Wars also reveals the secrets behind one of the most controversial episodes in British judicial history - how former Home Secretary Michael Howard was duped into granting John Haase a Royal Pardon. 
 
Today, Paul Grimes has a £100,000 contract on his head and is a real-life dead man walking. 
 
Powder Wars is a riveting account of modern gangsters told in brutal detail.

Graham Johnson is the Sunday Mirror's investigations editor. He has covered stories including drug dealing in Britain, people smuggling in Europe, child slavery in India and Pakistan, and war in the Balkans. He currently lives in London.

Graham Johnson

The Inside Story of How Street Gangs Hijacked Britain's Biggest Drugs Cartel

'The young bloods did not care whether they killed criminals or civilians . . .’ 
 
 The Cartel is Britain’s biggest drugs gang, a global corporation employing thousands of criminals and flooding Britain with cocaine and heroin. Yet the established order is under threat: street gangs are overwhelming the old-school Cartel godfathers with a campaign of violence, intimidation and mayhem, heralding a series of events that has had devastating consequences for the whole of society. 
 
 In Young Blood, the explosive follow-up to The Cartel, bestselling true-crime author Graham Johnson reveals how the brutal assassination of drug baron Colin ‘King Cocaine’ Smith in 2007 by a group of young bucks triggered the rise of the foot soldier, and exposes the bitter struggle that has spread throughout Europe as various factions battle to seize control of the most lucrative crime syndicate in British history.

Graham Johnson

Books by Graham Johnson

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