Book description
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.
