Jamie Coggins was initially charged with murder but was cleared by the jury who found him guilty of assisting an offender
Jamie Coggins was initially charged with murder but was cleared by the jury who found him guilty of assisting an offender
A man sentenced last week for his role following the murder of a teenager is the nephew of Huyton Firm gang boss Vincent Coggins. Jamie Coggins, 28, was handed a four year sentence at Liverpool Crown Court following the murder of 19-year-old Nyle Corrigan, who was fatally shot on Boode Croft in Stockbridge Village in November 2020.
Coggins had been accused of murder but was cleared of the charge – which would have carried a minimum term of 30 years – and was instead convicted of assisting an offender. He appeared in the dock alongside Martin Wilson, 37, and Connor Smith, 26 – the two gunmen who were handed sentences of 32 years for murder.
The ECHO can confirm that Jamie Coggins is the nephew of Vincent Coggins – the leader of the notorious drug gang the Huyton Firm which controlled much of the city’s drug trade for three decades. The ECHO was unable to make any link between the two men during the trial’s proceedings, with Jamie Coggins’ counsel raising concerns about the jury recognising the surname.
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Vincent Coggins, who ran the operation with his brother Francis – Jamie’s dad, sat at the top of the organised crime group (OCG) involved in the supply of huge amounts of cocaine and heroin across the UK. The gang, which had supply networks from Plymouth to Scotland brought most of their illicit cargo through the Port of Liverpool with the help of corrupt dock workers.
But the gang’s operations which had remained out of view from the authorities for so long was undone following the hacking of the EncroChat network in early 2020. Following a raid on one of the gang’s stash houses in West Derby, where £1m of cocaine was stolen, Vincent Coggins and his associates, including Olivia Pratt-Korbel’s murderer Thomas Cashman, made efforts to recover what was theirs.
However, the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit (NWROCU) and National Crime Agency (NCA) were monitoring their communications and, once it appeared the gang planned to kill those they believed responsible for the robbery, swooped in and made over a dozen arrests.
For nearly four years the ECHO was unable to report details of the gang’s crimes and subsequent convictions until the conclusion of criminal proceedings for one of Vincent Coggins’ key soldiers. Vincent Coggins was jailed for 28 years after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs and blackmail.
Over a three-month conspiracy window in 2020 investigators estimated he was involved in the supply of 148kg of cocaine and 248kg of heroin. Eight other members of the gang were handed hefty sentences. Francis Coggins remains wanted in the UK and is believed to be in Amsterdam or Spain.
Jamie Coggins ‘gladiator’ rank on World of Warcraft
While there is no indication that Jamie Coggins was involved in his uncle’s crime group, he told the jury in the Nyle Corrigan murder trial that he was a drug dealer involved in multi-kilo quantities of cannabis. During his evidence Jamie Coggins told the court that he was good friends with Smith and Anthony Llewellyn – who was cleared of murder – but had only met Wilson “a couple of times in passing”.
He added he had known the victim Mr Corrigan “for most of my life” and considered him a friend. He told the court he and his friends spent a lot of time playing and talking about video games together. Jamie Coggins told the court that he played “about eight to 12 hours a day” and had particular expertise at “FIFA and World of Warcraft”.
He told the jury he was “very good” at World of Warcraft – an online fantasy game – where he would compete in player vs player duels. He told the court he was in the top 0.5% of players in the world and reached the rank of “gladiator”. When asked about lengthy phone calls between himself and Smith the night before Mr Corrigan’s death, he said they were giving “each other stick”.
While they were having this call masked men including Wilson had gone looking for Mr Corrigan and had threatened his sister telling her “Nyle was dead”. When asked if he knew this was happening, Jamie Coggins told the court “no, no idea”. The next day Wilson and Smith, wearing black face masks and with their hoods pulled up, walked to the “kill point” before hiding behind a bush and waiting for Mr Corrigan.
When he arrived on his electric bike Wilson took the shot, fatally wounding Mr Corrigan who died 50 minutes later. After the shooting the two gunmen escaped on his bike. In the hours and days following the shooting Jamie Coggins helped Smith dispose of his clothing before helping the killer move his belongings from a city centre flat to a safe house overlooking the Mersey.
The prosecution told Coggins’ sentencing that this continued even after he had been initially arrested and released on bail. They added Jamie Coggins’ helped allow Smith to escape to Spain where he remained for a number of years.
CCTV footage showed Jamie Coggins at Manchester Airport heading out of the country to visit Smith, who only returned to the UK because he deemed it safe to do so because others had been released without charge, the prosecution said. Jamie Coggins’ defence counsel added since he was remanded he had become a dad and it was hoped “the responsibilities that come with that means he will be less likely to offend again”.
