GLOSSARY

79 kalookie – variation of the card game rummy

Babylonians – black word for police

bag-head – drug addict

bake – to turn powder cocaine into crack cocaine

bally – balaclava

bang on – spot on or accurate

barrios – neighbourhoods

bird – jail time

bizzy/bizzies – police officer/the police

blagger – armed robber or liar

blimp – glimpse/look

blouse notes – counterfeit money

blowing us through/up – when a police officer asks for criminal record information or a vehicle check over a radio

boxed it – when an action is complete; sorted

brown – heroin

bumped – refused to pay up

burst a ken – to ambush a house by bursting through the front door

bush – leaf marijuana

capex – capital expenditure

Charlied – under the influence of cocaine

chi – inner strength

chipping – cheating; specifically to hide profits from a partner

claret – blood

compo – compensation

crash the gaff – to storm a building

defo – definitely

dough – money

draw – cannabis

dollars – money

Ebonics – pertaining to black culture; something which is constructed using black influences

exies – expenses

face – well-known criminal

fessed up – confessed

fours, the – the fourth floor of a prison wing

gaff – house or place of business

gat – gun

gazelle – to run at speed or to jump high and far

gip – bother

go-around – fight

golly – phlegm

granny – used to refer to old ladies employed as drug mules

hash – cannabis resin

heater – a gun

Hoffmann – run (named after Dustin Hoffman, who appears in the film Marathon Man)

intel – intelligence data

ironed or ironed out – killed/ assassinated

jarg – fake or phoney

jockey – driver

jug – jail

kecks – trousers

ken – house

khazi – toilet

KO – knockout

la – lad

lash – throw

leccie – electricity

licks – punches or blows

mark – intended victim of a con or scam

mithering – annoying

MO – abbreviation of modus operandi

narco – narcotics

nice touch – successful criminal operation

noncery – paedophilia

on offer – vulnerable to arrest

on top – underworld emergency

one over the eight – drunk

oppo – partner/comrade

ounce out – split drugs into ounce batches

outro – escape route

ozzie – hospital

PACE – police and criminal evidence act

paper – cash

parley – meeting

pigs – the police

plod – police officer

punter – the victim of a mugging

put somebody under manners – to threaten a victim into following instructions; to make someone an offer they can’t refuse

rattler – train

rep – reputation

roid-head – a steroid-using bodybuilder

rolling – mugging

scally – youthful miscreant

scooped – hit

score – to buy drugs

scrap – credit

screw – prison warden; job

shovel – jail

slam on – to bring a fast-moving car to a stop using a handbrake turn

springboked – kicked

squeeze somebody out – induce unconsciousness by compressing the windpipe

steward’s – steward’s inquiry, to get to the bottom of an incident

three-piper – foursome that includes three men and one woman

tick – credit

ting – black word for a gun

tippled – tipped off

town halls – balls

trackies – tracksuits

tranny – radio

tug – arrest

twat – hit

U-ie – U-turn

vidi – a look (from the film A Clockwork Orange)

white – cocaine

yellow pedal – a police document that proves drugs have been seized