Drug lords at top of 'The Family' cocaine and heroin empire fight to keep luxury property

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Two brothers, who are part of a notorious criminal group referred to as 'The Family', are fighting to hold on to a luxury house years after they were locked up.Turkish national Mehmet Baybasin, who is now now 59, was jailed for 30 years at Liverpool Crown Court in 2011, after a scheme which involved a Merseyside gang, looked to import vast quantities of cocaine from South America, reports the Liverpool Echo.The court had heard that between 2008 and 2009 the organised crime group concocted a "sophisticated" plot to get a 40 tonne shipment of cocaine from Colombia to Britain.

Mehmet Baybasin, however, was not the most prolific gangster in his immediate family. His older brother, Huseyin Baybasin, known as 'the Pablo Escobar of Europe' is serving a life sentence in the Netherlands after convictions for drug trafficking and conspiracy to murder in 2001.Huseyin took control of much of the heroin being exported from the poppy fields of Afghanistan in the 1970s.

Huseyin has since claimed in media interviews he was in league with high ranking officials in the Turkish government, and is also alleged to have had links with various intelligence services and militia groups.After Huseyin, reportedly nicknamed 'The Emperor', was locked up, the family business was allegedly taken over by his brother, Abdullah Baybasin, who was confined to a wheelchair after being shot by a rival.The brothers were reportedly so notorious in the Kurdish and Turkish communities of North London that they were referred to simply as 'The family', according to reports from the time.

Courts have heard Abdullah recruited young thugs known as 'The Bombacilar' [bombers] to extort businesses in the area, who were also involved in deadly clashes with rival gangs.In