TWO little girls, one dressed in a princess dress, flee in terror as three men in balaclavas run out of a house and shots ring out across a residential street.
An old lady carrying her shopping hurries indoors and a boy on a bike cycles away as four more bullets are emptied into a van and a blood-spattered body slumps out of the passenger door.
The shocking scene, caught in CCTV, was no war torn country – but a quiet street in East Manchester on a bright, sunny afternoon in 2018.
The chilling murder of dad-of-two Luke Graham features in tonight’s episode of BBC2’s The Detectives: Fighting Organised Crime, and highlights the brutal and brazen violence plaguing the streets of the city.
Filmed in Manchester, with unprecedented access to police ops, the series followed the Major Incident Team (MIT) for two years as they tackle the growing rivalry amongst drug-dealing gangs.
DCI Liz Hopkinson, who headed up the investigation into 31-year-old Luke’s murder, was shocked at the recklessness of the killers.
“Quite often organised crime takes place in the shadows or the back streets,” she says.
“But when you see a gunman burst out of a house, into a busy residential street and shooting, in broad daylight with people sitting in their front gardens, children playing, the sun shining, at teatime, that is horrendous.
“These people are very dangerous individuals and they have to be caught.”
Drug gangs 'take over houses' of vulnerable people
With drug use on the rise, and organised crime gangs (OCGs) battling to keep their slice of the takings, bitter turf wars have broken out across Manchester.
“There’s a lot more gangs in Manchester than there used to be and they’re more organised than they were in the 90s,” explains DS Julie Connor.
“Territory is everything. If someone else tries to muscle in on that, they will do everything possible to stop that. And there’s definitely more access to guns as well.”
In the year ending September 2020, over 278,000 crimes were reported to Greater Manchester Police, the highest crime rate outside London.
They included 88,000 violent crimes and 47 murders.
On a hot sunny day in June 2018, just before 5pm, drug dealer Luke Graham and his associate Anton Verigota dropped some crack and heroin at a house in Birch Street, Ashton-Under-Lyne, and drove away in a silver van.
Minutes later three men in balaclavas burst into the same house and threatened the occupant – a drug addict known as Peanut – telling him they would shoot his kneecaps unless he called Anton and lure him back to the house.
When Luke and Anton returned, the men ran out of the house, and began shooting into the open van door at point blank range.
Anton, who was running away, was shot in the leg. Luke, known as Tank to his friends, took five bullets but was killed instantly by the first, which zig-zagged through his chest and severed an artery.
DS Connor says the intimidation of ‘Peanut’ shows how the gangs increasingly prey on vulnerable people and use their houses as bases for their illegal activities.
“I’ve been a police officer since 1992 and I’ve got to know the gangs of Manchester pretty well,” she says.
“They prey on vulnerable people. They take over their houses. They use people with physical, mental disabilities, children, women who are desperate for money, drug users.
“This gang basically force their way into a house and force them to assist them with a murder.”
Sick tattoo tribute to cop killer Cregan
The vehicle used by the killers – a stolen Audi A4 – was found burnt out in a nearby street and rumours that the execution was carried out by local gang leader Wade Cox soon reached the ears of the MIT unit investigating the crime.
The convicted drug dealer, jailed in 2016 after police found heroin and cocaine stuffed between his buttocks during a police raid, was a one-time associate of cop killer Dale Cregan.
He idolised Cregan, who lured police officers Nicola Hughes and Fiona Bone to his home in 2012, before murdering them with a grenade and guns.
Cregan – who is now serving life – was also convicted of murdering Mark Short, 23, and his father David, 46, in a gangland feud.
Chillingly, Cox has a tattoo tribute to Cregan and his accomplice Anthony Wilkinson, which features a grenade and the words “friends have the same enemies.”
Messages on Luke and Anton’s phones to drug addicts in the area, suggested they had muscled in on the lucrative territory of Cox’s empire, sparking a turf war.
But the reputation for extreme violence among the gang means police were met with a wall of silence – even from victim Anton.
One woman interviewed, who names Cox as the killer, is heard refusing to give a statement for fear of reprisals.
“If Wade Cox knew I’d said that he would probably kill me,” she says. “I don’t want to die for saying someone’s name to the police.”
Prime witness Peanut – tracked down after fleeing the Birch Street address – claimed he didn’t recognise any of the men and DS Connor says fear would stop him identifying the killers.
“He’s right to be scared,” she says.
“You want to persuade people to do the right thing but you've got to be sure for themselves that they will be safe. This is a dangerous gang who have killed someone already.”
Mothers 'feared for children' in gangland attack
Through tracking Cox’s phone, and cross referencing with CCTV, the unit finds he changed his clothes shortly before the attack to those similar to the gunman.
But his phone records show he was several miles away when Luke died.
Officers stumble on a breakthrough when cameras catch a meeting between 10 members of the criminal gang, close to Birch Street, 90 minutes before the attack.
Three men are seen climbing into the stolen Audi – including Wade Cox -after handing their mobile phones to other gang members who drive in the opposite direction.
More footage, in a local gym, showed one suspected accomplice, Callum Halpin, retrieving a phone from pal Conor Cornforth.
With Cox in custody, the unit have to work swiftly to arrest his suspected accomplices – and eight warrants for arrest are issued,
“With gangs it’s so important to get all of them,” says DS Connor.
“If you don’t, there’s someone else out there who is willing to pull the trigger and participate in that kind of crime.”
After a ten week court case at Manchester Crown Court, in 2019, Jack West, Connor Cornforth and Ben Dodd were convicted of assisting an offender and sentenced to between 2.5 and 3.5 years.
Charlie Atkinson, who drove Cox’s phone away and provided him with an alibi, was given eight years for assisting an indictable offence.
Wade Cox was convicted of murder and given a 36 year sentence. Callum Halpin is still on the run.
The judge, Mrs Justice Cuts, said the choice to commit the crime in daylight, in a residential area, added to the horrific nature of the murder.
“This must have been a terrifying event. Gang violence had broken out in a place where young families lived,” she said.
"Mothers told of their fears for their children who were playing innocently in the street."
DCI Hopkinson stressed that it was rare for gang violence to cross over into ordinary lives.
"2018 was a very hot summer. There were little girls running around playing in their princess dresses,” she told the Manchester Evening News.
"It's just absolutely awful that there were children playing in the street while this happened.
"It was just one of those incidents which did creep over into that civilian side.
"Mainly organised criminals largely target people of a similar stature – they are not going after members of the public.
“But Wade Cox in particular wasn't a complicated or intelligent character. He was really careless and behaved in an uncontrolled way.
"It is rare, but that's why I think that his sentence was so high.”
The Detectives: Fighting Organised Crime airs on BBC2 at 9pm tonight
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