A BLOOD-soaked underworld feud stretching back decades has been reignited as mobsters battle for supremacy in a terrifying turf war.
Notorious figures in the Lyons and Daniel clans’ long-running stand-off are coming under explosive attack while enemies jostle for power.
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Scotland has been engulfed in a bitter gang feud with regular firebombings on city streetsCredit: PA
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A property torched in Edinburgh linked to caged crime kingpin Mark Richardson
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Shootings and firebombings have gripped Scotland’s streets amid an explosion of violence
When the latest explosion of gang violence erupted in Edinburgh last month, the mystery mobster suspected of driving the chaos had set his sights firmly on Mark Richardson.
It seemed to the uninitiated this was a world away from Glasgow as homes and business in our capital city went up in flames.
Richardson meanwhile was helpless to intervene as he sat in isolation at Low Moss nick amid claims of a murder plot.
But it wasn’t long before the spectre of the Daniel – Lyons feud emerged as attacks moved west across the country with familiar names in the firing line.
MARK RICHARDSON & THE DANIELS CLAN
Mark Richardson
Edinburgh-based coke baron Mark Richardson, 38, has links to serious hoods across the country.
He’s currently in isolation at HMP Low Moss while homes and businesses linked to his family and associates are targeted in turf war.
Steven ‘Bonzo’ Daniel
Crimeboss Bonzo, 45, took over leadership of his family’s firm after the death of his millionaire scrap dealer uncle Jamie from cancer.
He controlled the city’s drug trade almost unopposed and preferred to work from their base in a dark corner of Glasgow’s Possil known as ‘The Jungle’ until the rise of the Lyons mob.
He assumed control in July 2016.
Francis ‘Fraggle’ Green
Francis ‘Fraggle’ Green is the cousin of Bonzo and son of late boss Jamie.
The crew’s second in command, 42, was best pals with enforcer Kevin ‘Gerbil’ Carroll and was one of the first on the scene after he was gunned down.
He was jailed for more than three years in 2012 for an attack on a gran in the Cairn Bar in Glasgow’s Balornock in 2011.
His sister Kelly was Gerbil’s partner.
Zander Sutherland
Late kingpin Jamie Daniel’s son, Zander Sutherland, 35, appeared in court from custody in January after being arrested by cops in Oslo, Norway.
He allegedly travelled to Hong Kong and then to Scandinavia while on home leave from Castle Huntly open prison near Dundee after a threat was made on his life early last year.
Craig ‘Rob Roy’ Gallagher
Rob Roy is a Daniel hood, 45, whose carpet outlet business was torched days ago amid an ongoing turf war.
The blaze in Glasgow’s Bishopbriggs came after he was jailed for two years and six months at the start of the month for chasing Lyons rivals with an axe.
He was cleared of murdering John Quinn McGregor, 44, near a gang hang-out in Milton in August 2021.
Properties linked to Steven ‘Bonzo’ Daniel – nephew of late crime kingpin Jamie Daniel – were set alight and a garage connected to Jamie’s son Francis ‘Fraggle’ Green was also torched.
Next on the hitlist was Daniel henchman Craig ‘Rob Roy’ Gallagher whose business was set on fire just days after he was caged for an axe rampage on Lyons associates.
It comes months after Zander Sutherland – another of Jamie’s sons – fled Scotland amid threat to life fears before he was extradited home from Norway.
Meanwhile, a threat posted on a video shared by the perpetrators made the link between Richardson and the Daniel clan loud and clear – and allied their enemies to the Lyons crew.
Mob boss Steven Lyons is said to be thousands of miles away from the ongoing carnage in Spain – but is said to have formed an understanding with James ‘The Don’ White and the Dubai-based hood known as Miami.
It’s claimed the initial violence was sparked by a drug deal of £500,000 in which a Richardson underlings used fake notes to con the desert fugitive Scot.
It sparked a wave of attacks across the capital as the vengeful former Union Bear ultra – who can’t be named for legal reason – launched a retaliation campaign from his UAE bolthole.
It’s understood he has the backing of top table hoods in Scotland with sources claiming caged gangster White has a hand in the violence.
The 48-year-old – who rose to the top of the Gillespie gang after top dog bros James and Barry vanished in 2019 – is under close watch at Addiewell nick over suspicions he’s still orchestrating organised crime from his jail cell.
MIAMI & THE LYONS CLAN
Miami
Former member of Rangers ultras The Union Bears, Miami is a new figure in Scotland’s crime scene who has already made his mark at the top table of organised crime.
He is wanted by Scots cops over allegations related to organised crime.
The 31-year-old, who can’t be named for legal reasons, goes by the name Miami and is said to be the driving force behind the attacks in Edinburgh and Glasgow over a cocaine con.
He has links to more established hoods.
Steven Lyons
Absent kingpin Steven Lyons, 44, fled Scotland after rivals left him seriously injured and killed his cousin Michael, 21, during a gun hit at his uncle’s Applerow MOT station in Lambhill, Glasgow, two decades ago.
Masterminded his gang’s expansion from overseas by building connections with notorious mobsters like the Kinahan cartel. Splits his time between Spain and Dubai.
Eddie Lyons Sr
Steven’s dad, 67-year-old Eddie Lyons Sr ran the infamous Chirnsyde Community Initiative centre where his lads and their pals began their careers in crime in Milton, Glasgow.
The chancer boasted friends in the police, politics and city council and was given more than £1.4m in taxpayers’ cash to run the den — which was shut in 2006 following the fatal shooting of his nephew Michael, 21.
Local dad Thomas McDonnell was nearly beaten to death at the centre by young thugs known as the Club Boys in 2000.
Billy ‘Buff’ Paterson
Hitman Billy ‘Buff’ Paterson was part of a masked gang who blasted feared Daniel enforcer Kevin ‘Gerbil’ Carroll 13 times in the head and chest during a daylight gun attack in an Asda car park in Robroyston, Glasgow, in January 2010.
Paterson, 45, fled to Spain but handed himself in at a police station in Madrid in 2014 and was caged for a minimum of 22 years for his part in the assassination.
James ‘The Don’ White
James ‘The Don’ White, 47, took control of the Gillespie gang when leaders James and Barry disappeared after fleeing to Brazil six years ago.
Experts estimate he has made £126million from crime but was jailed for 10 years for leading an operation smuggling cocaine into Scotland from Spain hidden in solar panels.
In isolation in HMP Addiewell over fears he is still pulling the strings from jail.
Graeme Pearson, ex director of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, said even jail does little to stop operations in the cut throat world of gangsters.
He said: “I mean, the fact that somebody’s convicted of organised crime doesn’t give them a P45 or a retirement sheet.
“When they’re inside, they’re still reaching out to their connections and maintaining an interest. Hence, so many of them come straight back out and go into organised crime yet again.
“So people within prison still want to maintain their position, their status.
“And that can only be achieved if they show a degree of influence in what’s happening on the outside.
“Equally they have got their own assets to protect on the outside.
“Without their personality and input, their status on the outside has been curtailed but it still has to be exercised at a distance from within the prison.
“No matter who is behind these things, whether it’s the man in Dubai or somebody local, it will take a range of other known criminals to engage and cause action on the streets of Scotland.
“There is no magic that can make activity occur from a distance.
“It’s local people who are involved in this and it will be local criminals who are doing this and therefore they will be the target of Police Scotland and the other law enforcement agencies to bring this to a halt.
“I’m sure Police Scotland will feel this very personally in taking it forward now.”
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