{"id":428061,"date":"2025-09-16T05:09:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T05:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/428061\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T05:09:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T05:09:11","slug":"gang-war-bounty-issued-on-head-of-jailed-cocaine-kingpin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/428061\/","title":{"rendered":"Gang war &#8216;bounty&#8217; issued on head of jailed cocaine kingpin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>A jailed cocaine kingpin is among those connected with an ongoing gang war that has forced the prison service to take extra precautions.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, an underworld feud ignited across the central belt with homes, cars and businesses firebombed, multiple assaults and threats issued.<\/p>\n<p>Police Scotland launched a special task force, dubbed Operation Portaledge, to tackle the warring gangs following the rise in violence.<\/p>\n<p>Having previously posted videos of some of the firebombings, a group named TMJ appears to have issued a bounty offering a reward for a violent attack on Scottish drug lord Mark Richardson.<\/p>\n<p>Extra security precautions have been in place in Scottish prisons amid the increased threat of violence.<\/p>\n<p>Richardson is currently serving jail time for his role in serious organised crime, drug offences and possession of a gun.<\/p>\n<p>He was previously cleared of the attempted murder of Ross Monaghan outside a Glasgow primary school in January 2017.<\/p>\n<p>Monaghan was killed outside a Spanish bar alongside Eddie Lyons Junior in May 2025.<\/p>\n<p>STV News is now on WhatsApp<\/p>\n<p>Get all the latest news from around the country<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whatsapp.com\/channel\/0029VaCESJzKgsNvKKNOYO2r\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">      Follow STV News <\/a>Follow STV News on WhatsApp<\/p>\n<p>Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/whatsapp-qr.png\" alt=\"WhatsApp channel QR Code\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A jailed cocaine kingpin is among those connected with an ongoing gang war that has forced the prison&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7826],"tags":[748,918,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-428061","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-glasgow","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-glasgow","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115212253524838935","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}