Liverpool crime family jailed

One of the region's most notorious criminal families has been jailed today for running a multi-million pound drugs empire.

The Fitzgibbons had links with suppliers across Europe and ran their lucrative operation from their home in Liverpool.

Members of a notorious criminal family will be sentenced later over a failed plot to smuggle more than £6 million of heroin into Britain.

Brothers Ian and Jason Fitzgibbon, and their mother, Christine, were caught after authorities seized 126lb (57kg) of the class A drug in Turkey and followed the trail back to Liverpool.

Police hid listening devices in the family's home, where they, "convicted themselves by their own words, in their own house."

When the detached house in Edale Road was raided, officers found £137,000 in cash stuffed under the floorboards.

Jason, 40, of Crofton Mansions, Crofton Estate, North Sudley Road, Liverpool, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import heroin and Ian, 39, of Heigham Gardens, St Helens, admitted conspiracy to supply heroin at earlier court hearings.

Christine, 60, of Edale Road pleaded guilty to money laundering.

The brothers - both fathers-of-three - will be sentenced at Manchester Crown Court today, along with their mother and several criminal associates.

Matt Burton, of the Serious Organised Crime Agency in the North West, said the Fitzgibbon family "revelled in their notoriety":

Two brothers and their mother have been sentenced to a total of 32 years and six months for a failed attempt to smuggle heroin in to the UK.

Christine Fitzgibbon and her sons, Ian and Jason were caught after authorities seized 126lb (57kg) of the class A drug in Turkey and followed the trail back to the family.

When police raided their home in Liverpool they found £137,000 in cash stuffed under floor boards.