How warring Salford gangs use Scouse foot soldiers to do their dirty work

The rivalry between Manchester and Liverpool needs no introduction. But when it comes to crime, high-level underworld figures from the two cities have a long history of collaboration.

Two cases have demonstrated how notorious Salford gangs the 'A-Team' and the 'Anti A-Team' have recruited Scousers to carry out the dirty in their ultra-violent feud, the Liverpool Echo reports.

The now notorious and long-running dispute culminated in the shooting of Salford's 'Mr Big', 55-year-old Paul Massey in 2015. His killer, Anti A-team hitman Mark Fellows, was only caught three years later after executing Mr Massey's friend and known "enforcer" John Kinsella, 53, as he walked his dogs with his long-term girlfriend in Rainhill.

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Fellows, nicknamed 'the iceman', was found guilty of both murders and jailed for life with no possibility of parole in January, 2019. After the conclusion of his trial in Liverpool Crown Court, violence erupted again between the two gangs.

Last week Shakur Watson, 21, and Steven Curry, 44, were jailed at Bolton Crown Court for their respective roles in setting off a home-made grenade outside a home in Crowther Road in Ordsall, Salford, on December 30, 2019. That incident was described in court and by Greater Manchester Police as coming against a background of "fresh violence" between the warring factions.

The attack proved a failure as the device, stuffed with pyrotechnics normally found in fireworks, detonated inside a stolen BMW prematurely, forcing both men to flee the scene and then get a taxi