THEY look like doting grans and unassuming mums on the school run, waving off their kids at the gate before trudging home.
But they’re not off to watch daytime TV or walk the dog – instead, these seemingly model matriarchs head up organised crime gangs, run drug empires and plot lucrative heists from the comfort of their sofas.
Cocaine gang leader Lynne Leyson went on the run[/caption]
Killer Black Widow Linda Calvey[/caption]
Drug clan chief Mags Haney is taken away in cuffs after police raided her home[/caption]
From a farmer’s wife turned cartel kingpin, to the gang of mums with 25 kids who hid loot in customised skirts, experts say more and more women are becoming involved in serious crimes.
Many of the most notorious didn’t have a single smudge on their criminal records – but behind the scenes, they were pulling the strings as some of the most feared underworld figures in the country.
One such shadowy boss even appeared on a popular TV show in the 90s before a police raid saw her dramatically arrested and locked up.
Another was raking in so much dirty money she could splash out on a Gucci collar and nine-carat gold name tag for her pet cat.
Nobody thinks the nan at the school gates is shifting kilos of cocaine.
Dr Mohammed Qasim
Criminologist Dr Mohammed Qasim told The Sun: “Recent years have seen growing numbers of women at the helm of criminal organisations – often mothers, sometimes even grandmothers.
“At first glance, this seems surprising, but perhaps it shouldn’t.
“Cartels and gangs have long relied on family networks, and a ‘mum’ or ‘gran’ can hold considerable sway within them.
“From a criminology perspective, their greatest advantage is that they don’t fit the stereotype of a gangster.
“Mothers are not expected to run drug empires, and these women exploit that very perception.
“They appear harmless, even respectable, and it is precisely this shock factor that allows them to slip under the radar while quietly calling the shots.”
Dr Qasim, of the University of Bradford, added: “Nobody thinks the nan at the school gates is shifting kilos of cocaine.”
Gran flooded UK with £80m of cocaine
Certainly, no one suspected Deborah Mason, 65, was leading a secret double life as the head of a major drugs racket that flooded the UK with £80m of coke.
Until recently, the gran and mum-of-seven appeared to live an unremarkable existence from her flat in Tufnell Park, North London.
In reality, she headed a family syndicate of seven who made £1,000 a day from shipping the class A drug to all corners of England and Wales.
Known to the underworld as ‘Gangster Debs’ and ‘Queen Bee’, she splashed out her ill-got gains on designer clothes, bags and accessories.
Her Bengal cat, Ghost, also enjoyed the perks of her criminality – adorning a £400 Gucci collar and nine-carat gold name tag.
Mason feigned surprise when police detained her in a dawn raid, telling arresting cops: “Me? No, come on!”
She was sentenced in July to 20 years in prison for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.
Number of women arrested on the rise
By John Siddle
The number of women arrested shot up 12% in the year to March 2024 – almost double the rise for men.
Some 113,762 women were detained by police in that time period, up more than 12,000 on the year before.
The sharpest rise was for robbery (29%) while drug arrests climbed by 4%.
And 12% rise in arrests for violent crime saw 63,188 women arrested.
Government statistics also revealed that 14% of female defendants taken to court in 2023 were prosecuted for the most serious crimes, known as indictable offences.
Her relatives together got more than 100 years inside.
Police who brought her down described her as the brains of the operation.
CPS prosecutor Robert Hutchinson said: “Instead of nurturing and caring for her relatives, Deborah Mason recruited them to establish an extraordinarily profitable criminal enterprise that would ultimately put them all behind bars.”
Drug pin king mum
Meanwhile, in Liverpool, the Fitzgibbon family were once the most ruthless crime gang in Merseyside – running a multi-million pound organisation headed from an ordinary-looking home.
That suburban address was the home of Christine Fitzgibbon, at face value, a grandma with not even a smudge on her criminal record.
While her drug dealer sons Ian and Jason were under the surveillance of police, the extent of their mum’s criminality shocked detectives.
When her home was searched £187,000 was found buried, including in a specially constructed hide under the floor of one of the bedrooms.
A court case heard how she brazenly claimed benefits while living the high life through the family’s drugs PLC.
Christine Fitzgibbon was locked up for money laundering in 2013[/caption]
After she was locked up for money laundering in 2013, aged 60, serious crime officer Neil Burton said: “Christine is a real matriarch of the family.
“She is the thing that binds them and bonds them. She resolves internal disputes and everything revolves around her.”
Damning recordings picked up by secret listening probes uncovered boasts about drug plots on an international scale.
The bugs even picked up a full-blown confrontation between Ian and Jason in a row over who was the best drug dealer.
In the astonishing clip, Jason bragged: “Whatever he can do, Mum, I can do 10 times better.”
The Fitzgibbons made a fortune from their illicit enterprise – but were careful to disguise their wealth to avoid being caught out.
The family enjoyed holidays at their luxurious villa in Spain and kitted out the interior of their Mossley Hill home with top-notch furnishings.
But there were no other lavish trips abroad – and when Jason parked a Porsche on the driveway of his mum’s home, he was quickly warned: “You’re bringing attention to me.”
The Fitzgibbons, whose violent exploits and feuds with rivals as a family stretch back decades on Merseyside, were described as “tier one criminals at the top of their game”.
Farmer’s wife to cocaine ring
In rural Carmarthenshire, neighbours thought Lynne Leyson, 53, was just a farmer’s wife.
In truth, she was the “dominant force” in a cocaine ring, running shipments from a quiet Welsh smallholding.
After being found guilty of conspiring to supply cocaine and cannabis, she fled – vanishing for 16 months before reinventing herself under fake names.
Leyson was finally caught after sneaking back to check on her Rottweilers and jailed for nine years last September.
Her husband Stephen, 58, and his son Samson, 27, were jailed in 2023 for dealing cocaine and cannabis.
They had used guns, knives and Doberman dogs to threaten villagers who were suspicious of goings on at the remote farm in Capel Dewi.
Similarly, in July, a Bradford mum was jailed after roping in her own kids to smuggle millions of pounds’ worth of cocaine into Britain.
Pibwr Farm was once the nerve centre of her drug-dealing operation[/caption]
Farzana Kauser, 54, was exposed as the UK boss of a global cartel with links to Pakistan and Mexico.
She looked like any other mum – but behind the facade, she was running an international smuggling empire from her Manningham home.
When nabbed at Birmingham Airport last November, Kauser claimed she was just there to meet her kids.
In reality, they had just stepped off a flight, dragging 180 kilos of cocaine worth £14.4million, along with them.
It was the family’s fifth successful run in just three months.
The National Crime Agency said Kauser drilled her children in smuggling tactics.
Speaking after she was jailed for 13 years, NCA officer Rick Mackenzie said: “To her friends and people who thought they knew her, Farzana Kauser was a thoughtful, loving mum who seemed very normal.
“She was very well practised in her life as a high-end cocaine trafficker, and she took great pains to delete any trail of evidence.
“She led this crime group with dedication and determination, often instructing her children on how to smuggle the drugs effectively and on what techniques to employ.”
Big Mags’ heroin racket
In Stirling, Scotland, Margaret Haney was once hailed as a community hero for leading anti-paedophile marches.
The straight-talking gran shot to fame after appearing on BBC chat show Kilroy in the 90s.
But behind closed doors, she was the matriarch of a clan which made hundreds of thousands of pounds from drug dealing.
Mags Haney from the Raploch housing estate Stirling[/caption]
Haney on the popular daytime show Kilroy in 1997[/caption]
Mum-of-eight Haney, known as ‘Big Mags’ was jailed for 12 years over the heroin racket, alongside her daughter Diane, cousin Roseanna and son Hugh.
She died of cancer in 2013, aged 70.
Her granddaughter, Cassie, later admitted: “Two things can be true at one time.
“You can be a drug dealer who has sold drugs that have potentially killed people, but you can also still be a loving grandmother and a good person.”
Black Widow swaps school run for sawn-off shotguns
Linda Calvey was dubbed Britain’s Black Widow – a glamorous mum who swapped school runs for sawn-off shotguns.
First married to armed robber Mickey Calvey, her kids, Neil and Melanie, grew up surrounded by crime.
In one bizarre moment, baby Neil was photographed playing with a pile of stolen banknotes.
But tragedy struck when Mickey was gunned down in a failed supermarket raid in 1978.
Instead of going straight, Linda stepped into his shoes – masterminding heists that earned her more than £1m.
Her glittering reign ended in blood, though when she was convicted of blasting lover Ronnie Cook in the head, becoming the first woman in Britain charged with gangland murder.
Linda Calvey with her daughter Melanie[/caption]
Mickey Calvey with newborn son Neil[/caption]
Neil and Mel lost their dad and then mum Linda was jailed[/caption]
Behind bars, she mixed with killers Myra Hindley and Rose West, serving 18 years before release in 2008.
Speaking in a recent BBC podcast, Neil reflected on his upbringing, saying: “I suppose it was a little bit different from the norm.
“I mean, my mum and dad used to be called Bonnie and Clyde by my friends.
“We had some really good times, when we were having it good, it was really, really good. Lovely houses, lovely clothes, nice cars.
“Then you had the flip side which was the polar opposite. As a kid growing up, you were either at the top of the tree or at the bottom. There was no in between.”
Gang of thieving mums with 25 kids
But not every gangster mum runs drug cartels – others settle instead for high-street heists.
A gang of thieving mums with 25 kids between them used skirts with secret pockets to swipe £4,500 of perfume from Boots.
The four women – Olga Mihai, Reica Petre, Carmen Stoica and Cintariata Veriga – travelled from London to Eastleigh, Hants, on a Christmas shoplifting spree.
While one distracted staff, the others stuffed bottles into skirts lined with hidden compartments and bags.
They even tried to cover their tracks by taking £1,600 of perfume to the till before brazenly telling the cashier they had no money and walking out.
All four had long records for theft, with Veriga racking up 19 convictions.
Judge Nicholas Rowland jailed them for a total of five years in 2019, blasting: “These four women came together from London or that area with the intention of stealing in Eastleigh.
“They came equipped for the theft with garments.”
While the crimes may vary, there is one thing these gangster mums & grans all have in common – the ability to slip under the radar and run a criminal empire for the comfort of their own homes.
Fellow gang mum Reica Petre tailored skirts with special hidden pockets to steal huge amounts of perfume[/caption]
