27 May 2023 , 13:51
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Two British gangland rivals allegedly settled a long-running feud with a punch-up in Dubai.
Michael 'Cazza' Carroll and Stephen Britton, are named as leaders of separate organisations originating in Salford, Greater Manchester.
The underworld pair are said to have been at war since before the murder of the city's 'Mr Big' Paul Massey in 2015.
The kingpin was gunned down outside his house by Mark 'The Iceman' Fellows that July.
The gunman was convicted of the murders of both Massey and John Kinsella at Liverpool Crown Court in 2018.
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Britton is understood to be the top man of the A Team, allied to Massey, while Carroll, said to be the boss of splinter group the Anti A Team, sides with Fellows.
Mugshot of Stephen Britton - alleged top man of the A Team (GMP)
Carroll is said to run the Anti A Team (Manchester Evening News.)Sources have told the Manchester Evening News, Carroll and Britton took part in the organised 'straightener' in the United Arab Emirates city.
The alleged clash was said to have been watched by their supporters.
Carroll is understood to have 'won' the scrap, which ended when an onlooker was forced to step in.
Greater Manchester Police detectives are reported to have logged intelligence on the alleged fight.
Mark Fellows jailed for the murders of Paul Massey and John Kinsella (MEN Media)Jurors at Massey's murder trial were told his death was the result of a feud between the two gangs.
Britton is said to have held peace talks with one key member of the Anti A Team as early as 2019, before the fist fight.
However, gangland sources suggest the encounter was more to do with personal animosity between the two underworld figures, rather than to draw a line under the gangs' feud.
A source said: "They just don't like each other."
Paul Massey was killed in a gangland assassination (MEN Media)Other sources have said it wasn't the first encounter the pair have had in Dubai, and that actually Britton 'won' the last one.
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In the aftermath of Massey's death, Carroll fled to Spain and graffiti appeared all over Salford calling him a "grass rat snitch police informer" and urging him to "come fight your war".
A hit-squad was dispatched to the European holiday hotspot.
However, any assassination attempt was thwarted following a raid on an apartment in Marbella on February 16, 2016.
The 'straightener' is said to have taken place in Dubai (Getty Images/iStockphoto)Policia Nacional officers, alongside detectives from GMP, found an astonishing haul of weapons including knives and a loaded pistol.
Britton is understood to have regarded Massey as his mentor and with whom he had spent the afternoon before his murder.
He was arrested alongside others but released.
It is believed Carroll fled to Thailand and later Dubai.
John Kinsella was also killed by Fellows (Lincolnshire Police)Carroll, 42, is known to have worked as a scaffolder, and grew up in Salford.
He moved to the Wigan area following the alleged fall-out with members of the A Team, before moving abroad.
He wasn’t in the dock for any of the three trials connected to the gang warfare of 2015.
All three juries were told that he was the leader of the Anti A Team.
Liverpool Crown Court (Liverpool Echo)The tit-for-tat feud once saw Carroll's ex - and mother of his child - watch in horror as masked men removed the roof of her VW Golf with a Stihl saw outside her home in 2015.
Fellows was handed a whole-life term for the murders of Massey and Liverpool enforcer Kinsella three years later in the first of a series of gangland trials.
A second trial followed and concluded with the jailing of eight members of the A Team in April 2019.
These were for offences in connection with a shooting at a car wash in Ashton-in-Makerfield in March 2015, and then the shooting of a seven-year-old boy, Christian Hickey, and his mother Jayne, 30, on the doorstep of their home in Eccles in October of that year.
The mother and son survived, although they were seriously injured.
That trial heard that Carroll was a close friend of Christian’s dad.
Britton was previously jailed for five years for killing a teenager in a hit-and-run in 2009.
Britton, then 21, was fleeing police in his red Golf GTi when he struck 18-year-old Adam Jama - who he knew - and carried him 50 yards down a road in Salford.
He handed himself in to police a few days later and admitted it.
Although he has been named as the leader of the A Team gang in three trials, he has not been charged with any of the offences considered by any of the juries.