How Richardson followed in his father's footsteps

AS one of the city's most notorious and feared drug dealers, Mark Richardson led a gang which police believed were willing to use firearms to defend their turf and pursue vendettas.

As a 19-year-old, Richardson was jailed for 32 months in 2005 for dealing cocaine alongside his father, also called Mark, who received four years, after police seized 112,000 of the drug.

Following his release, Richardson quickly returned to drug trafficking, building up contacts with organised criminals in Liverpool and Glasgow to bring massive quantities of cocaine into the city.

He headed up the Inch-based gang alongside chief lieutenant, David Togher, 25, a former soldier jailed for five years and three months in February after being caught in a police operation which netted 450,000 of cocaine.

Richardson directed a network of hardened young criminals from south Edinburgh, which controlled much of the city's cocaine supply. The Inch gang was linked to series of shootings across the Capital after they became involved in a violent feud with rivals.

Richardson was a friend of murder victim Martyn Barclay, who was shot in the Inch in January last year by girlfriend, Caroline Igoe.