Search on for 2 Liverpool men after drugs swoop on Dutch cafe

A manhunt is under way for two Liverpool men linked to a suspected global drugs trafficking hub uncovered in Holland.

Britains new FBI-style National Crime Agency is hunting Robert Stephen Gerrard, 50, and Michael Paul Moogan, 27, after Dutch armed police raided a cafe in Rotterdam.

The cafe, which can only be entered via a buzzer system, is suspected of being the nerve centre for an international drugs ring.

Investigators believe it was used by criminals from across the world as a meeting place for negotiations with cartels and for arranging the financing and transportation of huge quantities of drugs.

In 1998 Robert Gerrard went on the run for a decade after being caught in an undercover police drugs sting in 1998. In 2008 he walked into Wavertree police station with his solicitor after making arrangements with detectives to finally hand himself in.

Gerrard’s barrister, at the time, Jason Smith, said that his client had absconded so he could help care for his severely depressed wife and ill child. The Recorder of Liverpool, Judge Henry Globe QC, jailed Gerrard for 4_ years but reduced the sentence by 2 years after Gerrard renounced his life of crime.

Article Source: Liverpool Echo  

Teenagers toe cut off by dangerous driver

A boys toe was cut off when he was pinned to the wall by a car after the driver lost control on a bend, a court heard. Shocked witnesses, in Atherton, ran to help the 16-year-old who was screaming in agony after the Vauxhall Vectra hit him.

A jury heard that a witness alleged seeing Nizamuddin Patel, the driver of the Vectra, driving dangerously from Bolton town centre to the scene.

Patel had been on trial for dangerous driving at Liverpool Crown Court, which he denies, but the trial collapsed for administrative reasons and he faces a retrial next February.

Henry Riding, prosecuting, told the court the accident happened on November 22, last year and that experts were unable to say how fast Patel had been travelling at the time of the crash.

Article Source: BoltonNews  

Sister jailed for pushing sibling out of a second storey window

A woman who pushed her sister out of a window leaving her in a wheelchair for life was jailed for eight and a half years.

Louise Velloza was left paralysed from the chest down after her sister Gillian Velloza, 24, pushed her from a bedroom window at a hostel they were both staying at in Anfield.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that the siblings, who are two sisters, out of a set of triplets, had a volatile relationship and were prone to arguments and violence even though they continued to live together.

Simon Driver, prosecuting, stated at the trial The prosecution alleges she (Gillian) deliberately propelled her sister out of that second floor window. The dimensions of that window were such that this propulsion could only be the result of a deliberate attempt to eject Louise over the wooden safety guard.

Gillian Velloza was arrested for attempted murder and denied being in the room but later pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm, saying she pushed Louise but did not mean to hurt her.

Article Source: Liverpool Echo