Michael ‘Cazza’ Carroll hasn’t been seen in his hometown in Merseyside since a brutal gang war broke out there in 2015 – it’s thought that he’s been living it up in Dubai
An alleged gang leader whose crew that murdered a notorious Liverpool criminal, has reportedly hit a snag while trying to renew his UK passport from his hideout in Dubai.
Michael ‘Cazza’ Carroll hasn’t been seen in his hometown since a brutal gang war broke out there in 2015. According to the graffiti scrawled on walls near his former residence, he’s considered a ‘grass rat snitch police informer’ by his foes. It’s thought that he’s been living it up in Dubai, the glittering gem of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, often referred to as a playground for billionaires.
However, his stay there seems to be in jeopardy, according to underworld sources, due to difficulties encountered while attempting to renew his passport. Insiders suggest Carroll fears his time might be running out following the 2020 law enforcement hack of the encrypted communications platform EncroChat, reports the Liverpool Echo.
The hack led to hundreds of high-profile criminals being put behind bars, including his mate Jamie Rothwell, who was sentenced to 43 years earlier this year for orchestrating massive drug deals and gun smuggling from his swanky Barcelona flat.
In subsequent trials, ‘Cazza’, originally from Salford, was identified as the head of a violent crime syndicate, with Rothwell – previously targeted in a carwash shooting amid a gangland feud – labelled as a trusted right-hand man.
Their crew, known as the Anti A Team, is infamous for its ultra-violent feud with the rival A Team gang – a faction they broke away from – that began in 2014. This conflict reached a bloody climax with the savage murder of Salford’s ‘Mr Big’, Paul Massey, on his own doorstep the following year.
This feud led to a series of criminal trials, resulting in key figures, including Massey’s murderer, being imprisoned from both sides of the dispute.
Despite not being on trial himself, Carroll was frequently mentioned as the leader of the Anti A Team during these proceedings. Another significant figure who wasn’t on trial was Stephen Britton, a mentor of Massey’s, who was identified in these trials as the head of the A Team.
The rival groups have experienced their share of highs and lows. In 2019, it was reported that Britton had attempted peace talks with Jamie Rothwell in a Spanish bar, but the animosity between the two main players persisted.
In the same year, underworld sources informed the Manchester Evening News that Britton had a ‘straightener’ with Carroll in Dubai. However, the source suggested that this encounter might have been more about personal hostility between the pair rather than an effort to end the feud between the two gangs.
“They just don’t like each other,” a source revealed. Other insiders claimed that this wasn’t the first time the pair had crossed paths in Dubai.
One side insisted Carroll had ‘won’ the fight until one of Britton’s mates stepped in. Another insider, however, claimed that Britton was the real winner.
The M. E.N. has learned that the team of detectives investigating the feud and securing several successful prosecutions recorded the encounter as intelligence on their records.
Insiders claimed that the rivals have had at least two run-ins in Dubai. One reportedly took place at a shopping centre where Britton allegedly ‘knocked out’ Cazza’s ‘Turkey teeth’, referring to the dental work he supposedly had done in Turkey.
In a later incident, it’s said that Cazza and his crew tried to ‘jump’ Britton. But Britton allegedly disarmed one of the men and used their weapon against them.
The outcome, according to the source, was that Carroll had to return to Turkey for dental repair work.
After Massey’s murder, Carroll scarpered to Spain and graffiti popped up all over Salford labelling ‘Cazza’ a ‘grass rat snitch police informer’ and challenging him to ‘come fight your war’. A hit-squad was sent to Spain.
However, any assassination attempt was foiled following a raid on a flat in Marbella on 16 February 2016, when Policia Nacional officers, alongside detectives from Greater Manchester Police, discovered an astonishing cache of weapons including knives and a loaded pistol.
The alleged leader of the A Team, Britton, who had spent the afternoon with Massey prior to his assassination, was arrested along with others but later released. It’s believed that Carroll then scarpered to Thailand and subsequently Dubai.
Detectives reckon they saved Carroll’s life. Carroll, known to have worked as a scaffolder and raised in Salford, relocated to the Wigan area after an alleged falling out with members of the A Team, before moving overseas.
He wasn’t present in the dock for any of the three trials linked to the 2015 gang warfare, but all three juries were informed that he was the leader of a rival gang called the Anti A Team, with Massey’s killer, Mark ‘The Iceman’ Fellows, said to be one of Cazza’s trusted footsoldiers.
The tit-for-tat feud between the rival gangs seemed to escalate into extreme violence following a particularly distressing incident for Carroll, when his ex-girlfriend – and the mother of his child – watched in horror as masked men dismantled the roof of her VW Golf with a Stihl saw outside their home in January 2015.
The carnage that ensued became the foundation for a series of underworld trials, with the first wrapping up in January 2019 when Fellows received a whole-life sentence for Massey’s murder and the killing of Massey’s associate, Merseyside gang enforcer John Kinsella, 53, three years later.
Kinsella, who hailed from Everton, was gunned down by Fellows on May 5, 2018, close to St Helens Linkway in Rainhill.
A subsequent trial followed and ended with eight A Team members being imprisoned in April 2019 for crimes linked to the shooting of Jamie Rothwell at a car wash in Ashton-in-Makerfield in March 2015, and later the shooting of seven year old Christian Hickey and his mother Jayne, 30, on their doorstep in Eccles in October that year.
A source from the underworld, familiar with Carroll and Britton, revealed to the Manchester Evening News this week that Carroll – believed to still be in the Middle East – had hit a snag while trying to renew his UK passport from Dubai.
It’s suggested that he’s fretting that his days there may be numbered as his options are rapidly diminishing.
The source disclosed: “He’s got a red notice, which is an international arrest warrant against his name. He tried to get his passport renewed a month ago but it was blocked because of a red notice. He’s in trouble. He’s basically become a ghost in Dubai because he needs a valid passport to renew his ID document in Dubai.”
In the United Arab Emirates, expats must possess an ID card and a valid passport is necessary to apply for or renew one.
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