This article provides a single case study of a British organised crime network
operational from the late-1980s to 1996. The network centred around three security firms
which spanned the ‘spectrum of legitimacy’ by legally providing security for licensed venues,
whilst taxing and protecting drug dealers, and/or selling drugs in the nightclubs they
protected. All three firms employed violence to prevent the encroachment of competitors and
extort licensed businesses. Debt collection services were also used as a front for extortion.
Actors were individually or collaboratively engaged in: the running of brothels and extortion
of sex workers, robbery of drug dealers, burglary, the importation of drugs, and unlawful
influence. At least three of the activities (robber, violence and unlawful influence) served a
dual purpose: (1) To achieve immediate and tangible goals, such as preventing the
encroachment of competing security firms, avoiding prosecution, and material gain; (2) To
achieve more distant and abstract goal of creating, maintaining or inflating violent
reputations
