Quality Street Gang: How Jimmy the Weed and Krays' pal Ronnie Knight became partners on the Costa Del Crime

They shared a liking for sharp suits, nightclubs and the high-life. And on Spain's 'Costa Del Crime' Jimmy 'The Weed' Donnelly and Ronnie Knight had another thing in common - they were both on the run from the law.

Knight, who died this week aged 89, fled the UK as one of the so-called 'Famous Five' - following what was at the time the biggest cash heist in history - the infamous £6m Security Express robbery in Shoreditch, East London in 1983.

The Costa Del Sol was the ideal place to lay low for someone like Knight, a pal of the Krays with connections to London's underworld. A few years earlier, a century-old extradition treaty between the UK and Spain had expired, meaning there was little chance of wanted Britons being sent home to face justice.

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When he arrived on Spain's southern coast the Soho nightclub owner found a rum bunch of characters settled there. Among them was Jimmy 'The Weed' Donnelly, a member of Manchester's notorious Quality Street Gang and the inspiration for the Thin Lizzy song Johnny the Fox Meets Jimmy the Weed.

Wythenshawe-raised Donnelly, so called because he was small in stature but grew on people, was one of the founder members of the QSG alongside his pal Jim Swords and his brother Joe, Vinnie and Louis Schiavo, Mick Brown, Denis Crolla and boxing promoter Jack Trickett.

With a liking for smart suits, flash cars and cocktail bars, they earned a reputation around town and were rumoured to be responsible for much of Manchester's crime in the 60s, 70s and 80s. But when Donnelly, who ran the Cotton Club on Stevenson Square, in what's now the Northern Quarter, was wanted for questioning over a mid-80s gangland shooting in