Steven Gerrard 'uncle'
wanted over £60m
cocaine trafficking - last
time he was on run
he WATCHED Stevie
play
Robert Stephen Gerrard seemed to have no care in the world as he joined Stevie G’s then fiancée Alex at the World Cup in 2006
England captain Steven Gerrard’s “Uncle Bobby” brazenly watched the player starring in the World Cup despite being wanted by drug cops.
Robert Stephen Gerrard seemed to have no care in the world as he joined the Liverpool hero’s then fiancée Alex, 31, in the crowd in 2006.
As our previously unseen picture shows, WAGS including Coleen Rooney were also near the fugitive in the Stuttgart stadium as England beat Ecuador 1-0 thanks to a David Beckham trademark free-kick.
Astonishingly the criminal put himself on public show even though he had been on the run for seven years from police probing a £1.5million plot to import 300kg of cannabis to the UK from Amsterdam.
A warrant had been issued for the arrest of the man Stevie G called “Uncle” after he fled from justice in 1999.
Fugitive Gerrard did not give himself up until three years after the World Cup game and then completed a term in prison.
“Uncle Bobby” is in fact the Anfield midfield hero’s second cousin but they are close and regularly socialised after his spell inside.
But now the 50-year-old is on the run again. He is suspected of being involved in a plot to try to import up to £60million of cocaine into Britain.
There is no suggestion Steven and “Uncle Bobby” are seeing each other now.
Top crime busters want to question Bobby about a sophisticated international drug ring said to involve violent criminals and massive sums of cash.
Last night sources close to Steven, 33, said he had no idea of his wayward relative’s activities when he attended the World Cup match.
One source said: “Steven knew his Uncle Bobby had been in trouble with the police but didn’t know it was as serious as it apparently is.
“He is adamant he didn’t know he was on the run when he watched him during the World Cup.”
Robert Gerrard’s original 10-year flight from justice came after he was caught with a gang who stashed cannabis, amphetamine and cocaine in Merseyside and the Channel Islands.
He was charged with conspiracy to supply drugs during December 1998.
Four other men, three from Liverpool and one from Glasgow, were also charged and in 2001 they were jailed for a total of 28 years.
But meanwhile Gerrard had gone on the run after failing to appear at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court in March 1999. It is believed he spent a decade hiding out in southern Spain and Holland.
In 2007 Steven was devastated by the loss of his great-aunt Joan Gerrard, Robert’s mother, and placed a memorial notice in the local paper.
The message on behalf of the star and wife Alex said: “Take her in your arms, Lord, guide her through the storm, sit with her in sunshine and let the wind be warm. Play her favourite music and when you see her smile, tell her that we love her and she’s thought of all the while.”
In 2009 “Uncle Bobby” finally handed himself in at Wavertree police station in Liverpool accompanied by his solicitor.
He admitted conspiracy to supply cannabis resin, a controlled Class B drug and was jailed for four and a half years. But the sentence was cut by two years after the judge gave him credit for “renouncing his life of crime”.
Since being released he has been pictured with mum-of-three Alex Gerrard at a Rihanna gig in 2011 and was regularly at family parties and functions.
But Steven can now be under no illusions about “Uncle Bobby” after the newly launched National Crime Agency issued an appeal last week for help in tracing the fugitive. It came after armed officers raided a Rotterdam cafe on October 29.
The building was believed to be an operations centre for international drug traffickers. The swoop was part of a series of coordinated strikes in the UK and Netherlands involving officers from the NCA and the Dutch National Crime Squad.
Two Turkish brothers suspected of running the operations centre were among 10 men arrested in the Netherlands. Three men were arrested in the UK – a 64-year-old from Hale, Greater Manchester, a 36-year-old from Harlow, Essex, and a 47-year-old from Brentwood, Essex.
Addresses in Liverpool linked to Gerrard and Michael Paul Moogan, 27, were also searched.
Investigators believe the cafe, which can only be entered via a buzzer system, was used by criminals from across the world to stage negotiations with cartels and arrange the financing and transportation of huge quantities of drugs. Officers recovered two handguns, more than 100 mobile phones, £250,000 in Euros, a cash-counting machine, radio scanner and jammer and expensive watches.
At other addresses in Rotterdam officers seized nine handguns, two semi-automatic rifles, a cocaine press and a total of £160,000 in Euros.
Steve Baldwin, regional head of investigations for the NCA, said: “We believe this cafe was being used as a front for a drug trafficking operations centre with international reach. This was a well-established set-up open 18 hours a day.
"It appears you were only allowed in if your face was known. Taking it out of operation will have caused serious disruption to the activities of organised crime groups across the world.
“We suspect those arrested in the UK and the two men we are now seeking – Gerrard and Moogan – used the cafe to orchestrate the importation of large quantities of drugs to the UK.
“If anyone has information on their whereabouts I would urge them to contact us.” The 64-year-old from Hale has been charged with conspiracy to import cocaine – up to 80 kilos a month since April. That totals an estimated 400kg worth up to £60million. Gerrard and Moogan are wanted in connection with the same conspiracy.
A spokesman for the NCA said: “If any Sunday Mirror readers have any information on the whereabouts of these men they should contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or the NCA on 0370 496 7622.”
A Merseyside Police spokesman said: “We can confirm the force is working with the National Crime Agency to locate Mr Gerrard.”
It is not the first time Steven Gerrard has been linked to underworld figures. There have been reports that one of the reasons he has not left Liverpool, despite lucrative offers to play for the likes of Chelsea, was because of threats from gangsters.
In 2008 a court heard that known gangster John Kinsella had stopped a man known as The Psycho from terrorising the player in 2001. As the ace’s team won 4-0 at home to Fulham yesterday, his representatives refused to comment.
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