Rise and fall of Madchester clubber who became Arizona's biggest ecstasy dealer
05.05.2024 - 15:53
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
He was nicknamed the 'Wolf of Widnes' in a nod to Leonard De Caprio's portrayal of the infamous stockbroker Jordan Belfort. And just like drug-crazed Belfort in the Wolf of Wall Street, Shaun Attwood's multi-million empire would come crashing down in spectacular fashion.
On May 16, 2002, a SWAT team smashed down the door of Attwood's Arizona mansion. Charged with being the head of a conspiracy crime syndicate, he was thrown into the infamous Maricopa County Jail.
It was a long way from his comfortable upbringing in Cheshire. So how did the self-confessed nerdy son of an insurance salesman end up rivalling some of America's biggest drug barons?
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Attwood developed a fascination for figures as a kid. By 14 he was reading the Financial Times and playing the stock markets. He had one goal in life - to get rich.
In 1987 he went to university to study business. And that was when he discovered Manchester's clubbing scene.
A regular at clubs like Thunderdome and Konspiracy, Attwood started taking ecstasy to help his anxiety. He went from shy teenager to party animal who 'lived to rave at the weekend'.
Around the same time Attwood visited a relative in Arizona and fell in love with the States. "My aunt forged a fake ID and took me to bars and introduced me to women as Paul McCartney’s nephew," he once said. "I was dazzled. I loved it and knew I wanted to go back."
A year after graduating, he moved to the US. And despite only having a travellers visa, blagged his way into a stockbroker's job, regularly working 15 hour days cold-calling hundreds of people.
Within five years he says he was earning a $500,000 salary. He moved into a mountain-side