the dailymash

When combined with Ferrero Rocher it is known as an 'eccellente-ball'

The slaying ended a fragile two month-long truce and is likely to lead to a series of tit-for-tat killings as the world’s favourite liqueurs battle over territory.

Tia Maria boss Roy Hobbs, 57, died in a hail of bullets as he left the Palace Theatre in central London after seeing Jason Donovan in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

As he stepped towards his limousine, three men on scooters mounted the pavement and opened fire with automatic machine guns. Witnesses said the killers smelled strongly of coconut and groovy beach parties.

Hobbs was one of the richest and most feared of all the liqueur barons, establishing a multi-billion dollar annual trade with his irresistible blend of coffee beans, cane spirit and vanilla. He was also known for torturing his rivals with massive billboards featuring devastatingly sexy Jamaican women.

Police sources say there will now be an all-out war to carve up Hobbs’ territory between Malibu, Cointreau and that green one that’s made from melons.

Meanwhile the violence has led to renewed calls for liqueurs, spirits and even some white wines to be legalised.

Professor David Nutt, head of the Independent Panel on Things That Make You Feel Fantastic, said: “Society needs to recognise its own hypocrisy when it comes to liqueurs.

“The only reason we do not treat Tia Maria in the same way as mainstream products like heroin and crack is because we don’t consume it using a manky old spoon or a syringe that’s encrusted with little bits of our own shit.”

But Denys Finch-Hatton, Tory chairman of the Commons’ health committee, said: “Like millions of other people I enjoy 10 or 12 syringes of French heroin with dinner, while at the weekend, if I do not have pipe after pipe of chilled Burgundy crack, I go completely fucking mental, break into my elderly neighbour’s house and then empty my bowels in a bus stop.

“Is Professor Nutt seriously suggesting I should do that with wine?”