Introduction

In Chapter 5, we began to explore some of the issues that would affect the A-Town group’s ability to sell drugs efficiently and efficiently, as well as erode their overall cohesion and credibility. As we will now see in this chapter, things only got worse. The tension between Grease and his employees in A-Town rises as their county line goes to war with another group in town. Accumulated debt, stock mismanagement, personal vendettas and ensuing violence cause the drugs gang back in Glasgow, who have their own problems to deal with, to lose faith and patience with Grease, and effectively sever his line. This chapter examines all of this, then looks at what happened next, whereby some local independent dealers are incarcerated and begin to desist from crime. This chapter concludes our case-study findings.

‘The drugs don’t work’

“Jimmy, mate, I am not saying that you’re trying to bump me. That is not what I am saying”, said Grease into his mobile phone. “Listen Jimmy, please listen”, he pleaded.

Jimmy continued to scream and talk over him. “No Grease. You are phoning me up. Telling me I have sold you duds. Saying they are shit.”

“Your pills are shit, mate”, Grease came back. “You said it yourself.”

Grease was angry now. Earlier that day, he had asked Davey to drive him around town running errands, none of which had anything to do with crime and county lines: a kid’s bike he bought on Gumtree; a few bags of shopping ordered for ‘click and collect’ – that sort of thing. On the way home, though, Grease asked Davey to drive up to a house on the edge of town near North Village. The homes on this small estate were different from the cottage-style homes, flats and semi-detached and mid-terrace homes in A-Town. They were older, built for the traditional labourers of the town before the residential population grew, but nicely maintained, with manicured gardens and roughcast or pebbledash on the outside walls.