A Southport man who dominated the town's drug trade once escaped an armed gang on a moped.
Liverpool Crown Court heard how Nathan Ball and James Gelling ran a drug gang in the High Park area of Southport.
Ball, 33, ran the drug supply operation which was known in the area as the 'High Parkers. ' Ball was jailed for 12 years after pleading guilty to drug offences. Gelling was jailed for eight years.
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Ball, a notorious figure in the town, was previously involved in a major police incident when rival criminals tried to shoot him on the night of July 13 2014. The drama unfolded moments before the World Cup final kick-off.
The gang, thought to be from Huyton, fired a semi-automatic hand gun at Ball, leaving shell casings littered across the road.
Ball was chased down High Park Road before escaping down an alleyway on the moped. He was not injured.
The incident led to a major response from police and left locals in the seaside town appalled.
One of the bullets fired passed through the porch of a house on Milton Street. A mum who lived in area spoke to the Southport Visiter days after the shooting,
She said : "My children normally play football in the evening in our front garden. They were in on Sunday because it was a school night, and the World Cup final was on. A child could have been killed just like Rhys Jones."
Police made a number of arrests in relation to the shooting but no charges were brought.
At the time senior officers described the shooting as "targeted" and blamed a fall out between criminal factions.
Speaking at the time Chief Superintendent Peter Costello said: "This appears to be a targeted attack by one criminal faction against another.
"It is reckless in the extreme to ever discharge an illegal firearm but to do so in a residential area on a busy summer's evening beggars belief.
"We are determined to bring these criminals to justice so they cannot put other people's lives in danger."
Yesterday ( Monday) Liverpool Crown Court heard how Ball dominated the sale of cocaine in the Southport area.
Vulnerable and desperate addicts were "cuckooed", meaning their homes were used by dealers as locations for drugs or cash to be stored.
Ben Jones, prosecuting, said: "They controlled and dominated the cocaine trade in the Southport area."
Ball, of Canning Road, Southport, admitted two counts of conspiring to supply cocaine and cannabis, with Gelling admitting the first charge.
A reliable source told the ECHO that Ball's gang were linked to many disturbing incidents in the town when they targeted rival street dealers.
Ball was a member of a tight knit group of criminals who grew up together in the High Park area of Southport.
Gelling, a close friend of Ball's, killed father-of-two Ventsislav Marginov, 51, during a street attack.
The thug was part of a gang of seven who confronted the Bulgarian after he was making his way home following Liverpool's Champions League win in the summer of 2019. Gelling punched the dad in the face in front of his sons.
Gelling later pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was jailed for six years.
Ball was convicted of assault in relation to the same attack.
In 2010 Ball was jailed for two years after smashing a bottle into a man’s face at Bakers Bar in the town centre. He had admitted wounding a man with a broken bottle at the bar on Scarisbrick Avenue in July 2009. Liverpool Crown Court heard that the victim was left with scars on his face after the attack.
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