Drug kingpin known as The Headmaster whose hitman gunned down Olivia ... trends now
A drug kingpin known as The Headmaster whose hitman gunned down nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel has been jailed for 28 years after police smashed his cocaine gang.
Vincent Coggins, 58, was the head of Merseyside's notorious Huyton Firm and ordered attacks on rivals like the one that killed Olivia. The child's killer, Thomas Cashman, was a hitman for Coggins before he was sentenced to life for her murder.
Coggins and his older brother Francis built up a powerful organised crime group that was involved in international drug trafficking - aided by connections forged with fellow gangsters in Spain.
He has now finally been brought to justice after officers intercepted Encrochat messages that show them plotting revenge on men they mistakenly believed were responsible for robbing them.
On May 23, 2020, a 'stash house' in Huyton used by Coggins' gang was targeted by a group who posed as delivery drivers before launching a machete and axe attack and stealing more than £1 million of cocaine.
Vincent Coggins, 58, was the head of Merseyside's notorious Huyton Firm and ordered attacks on rivals like the one that killed Olivia
In communications sent on Encrochat, Coggins, who used the handle moonlitboat, expressed a desire to kill those responsible for the robbery, whom he incorrectly identified as Brian Maxwell Junior, Michael Eves and Iyobosa Igbinovia.
Four other men from Salford, Greater Manchester, were later jailed for the robbery.
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Messages between Coggins and associates including Paul Woodford, 58; Michael Earle, 48; and Edward Robert Jarvis, 59; showed discussions of plans for revenge.
Police, who were monitoring Encrochat messages after the encrypted messaging network was cracked by police in 2020, became aware of threats towards the men wrongly identified as the robbers.
Threat-to-life notices were issued and the defendants were subject to disruption notices from police.
Those threats led to Maxwell Jr's father, Brian Maxwell Senior, giving money, property and land worth £1million to the gang in a bid to save his son's life, the court heard.
On June 16, 2020, three days after the Encrochat service alerted its users to the hack, the defendants were the first arrested by North West Regional Organised Crime Unit (NWROCU) officers as a
