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Daily Record
12-06-2025
- Daily Record
Former police chief makes plea over youth violence and knife crime
The former head of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency says a Scottish Government summit on youth violence can stop teenagers becoming involved in organised crime A FORMER police chief has called for a new crackdown on knives to prevent youngsters becoming the organised crime kingpins of tomorrow. First Minister John Swinney will today host a summit to look at ways of tackling the epidemic of youth violence. The move follows the deaths of 16-year-old Kayden Moy on Irvine beach, Ayrshire, last month and Amen Teklay, 15, in Glasgow in March. In an exclusive interview with Criminal Record - our new weekly podcast - Graeme Pearson, former Director General of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA), said young people using knives are easy prey for gangsters. He recognises keeping young men on the right side of the law can be difficult when they see the money being earned from the "wealth pie" of organised crime. In the last three months an organised crime explosion across Scotland has seen a series of firebombings and attacks on Daniel family members and their associates. Some of the 42 people arrested are in their late teens and early 20s. Graeme Pearson added: "You are talking hundreds of millions of pounds from the drugs trade. There will always be someone willing to accept money to commit these attacks. "The lifestyle that comes with the wealth is something they would not have experienced in their previous life. "Suddenly young people who come from working class-type backgrounds are getting access to high-value cars and houses and world travel." Pearson said it's important young people realise the downside is a seven day-a-week risk of being shot or police arrest. "Paranoia then sets in. Suddenly the lifestyle is not as glamorous." The ex-cop wants the youth violence summit to lead to more jobs and better educational opportunities for teenagers and more attractive options than a life of crime. He cotinued: "It's important we don't lecture young people about criminality - they know what's going on. "They need to know there is a job for them. If we are talking about youth clubs then we need to invest in them." Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. Pearson believes the latest increase in drugs deaths is a legacy of 20 years of failure and false promises.. The country has the highest drugs death rate in Europe and new Scottish Government figures show drug deaths in Scotland rose by a third to 308 in the first three months of this year. Pearson added: "We have had a growing demand for drugs which is generated by crime. "We have been told over the years that measures being taken would reduce the numbers of drugs deaths but that hasn't happened. "We still have needles in public places. "More than 25 per cent assets of our prisoners are on methadone. "We need new methods of intervention and treatment and at the same time invest in the enforcement that reduces the numbers of drugs coming into the country to be abused." Pearson, a former Labour MSP and justice spokesman, also wants tougher proceeds of crime laws to make it harder for gangs to hide their assets. The SCDEA was formed in 2001 to target organised crime. Pearson led it between 2004 and 2007 when a number of major criminals were brought to justice. It was disbanded in 2013 after the formation of Police Scotland. He said steps must be taken by politicians and police to protect children and our way of life from organised crime. The former police chief wants greater powers for the police and courts to both freeze and seize criminal assets. Pearson added: "We need new proceeds of crime legislation as a matter of urgency. I spent a lot of time in the early 2000s promoting the original legislation. I was told what I was recommending was draconian. "The last 20 years have shown what happens when one is relaxed about how you address the seizure of assets from organised crime. "We do not seize enough and draw the wealth that comes from it. That is the key to tackling organised crime - you reduce the profit then you seize the profit." He added: " Organised crime is a cancer. It's killing communities and holding back legitimate businesses through intimidation." "Pearson said tougher proceeds of crime laws means money recovered could be reinvested in the communities and estates where the profits were plundered. He believes one way of tackling organised crime between groups like the Lyons and Daniel clans s is more cops disrupting gang members' day-to-day activities. He said: "What the public need is more police officers on the beat. It might be traditional but it works." This week the Record delivers a three-part video series documenting 25 years of warfare between the Lyons and Daniel crime clans. Visit our YouTube channel or follow us on TikTok to see the latest For the latest news, views and opinions on Scotland's crime scene, check out Criminal Record - a new weekly podcast brought to you by the Record team . Each week, crime writer Norman Silvester discusses the latest in the gangland turf war and all the other big crime news of the week. Tune in on the Record's YouTube channel or listen wherever you get your podcasts.
Glasgow Times
03-06-2025
- General
- Glasgow Times
Ex-top cop on catalyst for Scotland's gang war after Spain shootings
Graeme Pearson, former Director General of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, said the successful infiltration of EncroChat by law enforcement had seen many crime bosses locked up. But this has led to a power vacuum on the streets and new alliances being formed behind bars, with crime groups now fighting it out for supremacy as a result. READ NEXT: Spanish tourists' terror after gangland double murder at busy bar READ NEXT: Footage emerges of Ross Monaghan and Eddie Lyons Jr shooting READ NEXT: The Glasgow crime story of Jamie Daniel READ NEXT: The Glasgow crime story of the murder bid on Steven Bonzo Daniel Attacks on people and properties have been waged in Glasgow and across central Scotland since March, with the fatal shooting of senior crime figures Ross Monaghan and Eddie Lyons jnr in Spain on Saturday night being linked to the outbreak of violence. Mr Pearson, who also served as Deputy Chief Constable of Strathclyde police, said: 'One of the big reasons we are in the state we are in just now regarding this gang war is because of EncroChat, and the criminal prosecutions on the back of it, which were very successful. 'It put in Scottish prisons a lot of crime figures who would not otherwise have been convicted. This created a vacuum in the streets which people have been trying to fill. 'It has also put a lot of significant crime figures in prison together, and who are still trying to exert influence on the outside, hampered by the fact they are prisoners. This causes jealousy and problems, with new alliances being created, and the police need to catch up with this. 'It all creates a new kind of tension, with people trying to work out who is in charge. Is it the people who are locked up, and claim to still be in charge, or is it the new faces? It all adds to the mix in terms of the potential for violence.' (Image: Spindrift) EncroChat, the supposedly secure messaging platform favoured by Organised Crime Groups, was comprehensively infiltrated by European law enforcement around five years ago, with the fallout continuing to this day. Mr Pearson said: 'There is a lot of evidence still to be worked through from EncroChat, and a lot of potential leads from that. There are a few doors to be chapped yet. 'Intelligence will have revealed the identities of current players. Individuals involved will all be known. Personal information will all be noted. Some might be abroad, but police will be waiting for them, and charge sheets will be waiting for them.' He said: 'The shooting in Spain is a development almost without precedent, with these two persons known to be senior figures within their organisations and people well known for their activities in the past. 'So there has been a major decision somewhere that they had to be taken out and that will have repercussions. Whether that is in Scotland or elsewhere remains to be seen. 'It could well be that they have caused some upset elsewhere in the world but the evidence will tell us fairly quickly what the facts are on that, I think. "OCGs present a threat to the cohesion of our communities. They target our young, destabilise public services and corrupt our institutions through their wealth and threats. OCGs damage our way of life and our young people's ambitions. Tackling them must remain a priority."
STV News
02-06-2025
- STV News
Shootings in Spain could bring 'new level of violence' to organised crime in Scotland
The double murder of two Scottish men who have links to the criminal underworld in Spain could mark a 'new level of violence', says the former director general of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency. Eddie Lyons Junior and Ross Monaghan were gunned down outside Monaghans Irish Bar in Fuengirola by a masked assailant who fled shortly after 11pm local time. The pair have been involved in a rivalry with the Daniels organised crime group for more than two decades. The fear is that the double murder, which took place around 25 miles south of Malaga in the province of Andalucia, could spark retaliation on Scottish soil. Graeme Pearson, the former director general of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, told STV News: 'I don't think that you could overestimate the impact that will arise from the deaths of these two men. 'Both Lyons and Monaghan have been part of organised crime and criminality in Scotland for well over a decade, and their names have been connected to a great deal that one calls organised crime. 'Their movement to Spain must be an indication that they didn't feel thoroughly safe in Scotland. But this week, we've discovered that even in Spain, they can be reached, and they were murdered. 'In the last 20 years or so, organised crime has become increasingly powerful. The Lyons family were a very significant family unit, who were known as very significant importers of drugs affecting Glasgow and the rest of Scotland. 'They were one of the many families who bypassed English criminals and made connections in Europe – and elsewhere in the world – to import, first of all heroin, and then cocaine into the country. 'Monaghan was well-known for his previous violence and was connected to the murder of a man outside an Asda supermarket many years ago, although a subsequent trial found him innocent. 'But that trial did reveal the degree of corruption that surrounded their involvement in public life in Scotland and was an indication of how powerful these crime groups have become.' STV News Graeme Pearson, the former director general of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency. Police Scotland told STV News the Spanish authorities were leading the investigation and it was unable to comment on any potential links to a recent gang war in Scotland. A feud between the Lyons and the Daniels organised crime groups has been ongoing for decades and has resulted in numerous violent incidents. Last month, Police Scotland made more than 40 arrests linked to ongoing violence in the west and east of Scotland. The criminal feud ignited after gunmen targeted two homes in Edinburgh within 48 hours. Several homes and businesses have been torched in recent months. It is currently not known if the targeted killings of Eddie Lyons Junior and Ross Monaghan are linked to the war which has gripped Glasgow and Edinburgh. Pearson believes the shootings may bring a whole 'new level of violence' to Scotland. He said: 'There is a presumption that it has something to do with the ongoing saga which has brought crime groups into violence and fire-raising in Scotland. 'One needs to keep an open mind that there may well be other crime groups across the world, who feel upset at the presence of these two men in Spain. 'First of all, let's follow the evidence and find out if there is indeed a link to Scotland and confirm that. If it's true, this is a new level of violence that we haven't previously witnessed in organised crime in Scotland.' Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
Sky News
18-04-2025
- Sky News
The Godfather-style gang war gripping two major cities - with brutal attacks caught on camera
It's like The Godfather, one reformed drug trafficker tells me. The mythical gangster film centred on an organised crime dynasty locked in a transfer of power. Communities in Scotland currently have a front row seat to a new war of violence, torture, and taunts as feuding drug lords and notorious families grapple for control of Glasgow and Edinburgh. There have been more than a dozen brutal attacks over the past six weeks - ranging from fire bombings to attacks on children and gun violence. Victims left for dead, businesses up in flames Gangsters have filmed themselves setting fire to buildings and homes connected to the associates and relatives of their bitter rivals. The main aim, they boast, is to "exterminate" the opposition. The taunting footage, accompanied by the song Keep On Running by The Spencer Davis Group, has been plastered over social media as part of a deliberate game of goading. A 12-year-old boy and 72-year-old woman were left for dead when teenagers wearing balaclavas burst into a home in north Glasgow. Garages and businesses have gone up in flames. Shots were fired at an Edinburgh house. Signals are being sent of who wants control of Scotland's dark criminal underworld. What's caused the gang war? The former director of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, Graeme Pearson, explains how a "vacuum of leadership" is playing a part. Last October, Glasgow-based cocaine kingpin Jamie Stevenson, known as The Iceman, was jailed after orchestrating a £100m cocaine shipment stashed in banana boxes from South America. The mob leader was one of Britain's most wanted, running his business like another on-screen criminal enterprise: The Sopranos. The 59-year-old fugitive went on the run before eventually being hunted and apprehended by police while out jogging in the Netherlands. 'Old scores to settle' But paranoia was running rife about how this notorious gangster could be brought down. Was there a grass? Was it one of their own? It further fuelled divisions and forced new alliances to be forged across Scotland's organised criminal networks. It wasn't until The Iceman case came to court that it was revealed an encrypted messaging platform, known as EncroChat, had been infiltrated by law enforcement. It ultimately led to Stevenson pleading guilty. Ex-senior drug enforcement officer Mr Pearson told Sky News: "It is a complex picture because you have got people who are in prison who still want to have influence outside and look after what was their business. "On the outside you've got wannabes who are coming forward, and they think this is an opportunity for them, and you have got others have old scores to settle that they could not settle when crime bosses were around." Mr Pearson describes a toxic mix swirling to create outbursts of violence unfolding in Scotland. He concluded: "All that mixes together - and the greed for the money that comes from drugs, and from the kudos that comes from being a 'main man', and you end up with competition, violence, and the kind of incidents we have seen over the past four to six weeks." New wave of violence 'barbaric' Glasgow man Mark Dempster is a former addict, dealer, and drug smuggler who is now an author and respected counsellor helping people quit drinking and drugs. He describes the "jostle for power" as not a new concept among Glasgow's high profile gangland families. "There is always going to be someone new who wants to control the markets. It is like The Godfather. There is no difference between Scotland, Albania, or India," he said. Mr Dempster suggests a shift in tactics in Glasgow and Edinburgh in recent weeks, with 12-year-olds being viciously attacked in the middle of the night. "It is barbaric. When young people, children, get pulled into the cross fire. It takes it to a different level. "At least with the old mafiosa they had an unwritten rule that no children, no other family members. You would deal directly with the main people that were your opposition." Police Scotland is racing to get control of the situation, but declined to speak to Sky News about its ongoing operation. It has been suggested 100 officers are working on this case, with "arrests imminent". But this is at the very sharp end of sophisticated criminal empires where the police are not feared, there are fierce vendettas and, clearly, power is up for grabs.
