Police chief warns ganglords: 'We'll be coming after you'
Police Scotland is pursuing organised crime figures who are based abroad in connection with the central belt's ongoing gangland feud.The force's chief constable, Jo Farrell, has told BBC Scotland News officers are building intelligence to target the leaders of the groups involved.She says her message to anyone directing violence in Scotland from a foreign country is: "We'll be coming after you."A total of 49 people have been arrested over a wave of incidents which began in Edinburgh in March before spreading to the west of the country.
The violence has involved multiple fire bombings and assaults, resulting in charges including attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.A Scottish man currently based in Dubai is alleged to have started the feud by targeting a crime group led by Edinburgh gangster and convicted cocaine dealer Mark Richardson.The man has been named in the media as Ross McGill.
BBC Scotland News asked Ms Farrell what could be done about a figure from a Scottish organised crime group who is based in Dubai.She replied: "We're working closely with the Crown Office and the National Crime Agency (NCA) to see if we can get those people back from those countries."These aren't fast processes, but we're working with the authorities there and the NCA have individuals in those countries."That's our link in and we're working very closely with them."Asked when the violence would be brought to an end, she replied: "We've created a lot of momentum and gained a lot of evidence and intelligence."We can see the temperature dropping in this space."The latest arrest in the investigation took place on Thursday. A 17-year-old male has been charged in connection with two wilful fire raisings in Edinburgh's Niddrie's Marischal Crescent and Campion Road on 9 June.The teenager was released and will appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court at a later date.
Spanish murders and Scottish links
The chief constable also repeated the force's position on the murder of two senior figures from a Scottish crime group in Spain.Ross Monaghan and Eddie Lyons Jnr were shot dead in a beachfront bar in Fuengirola on 31 May.Both were members of the Lyons crime group, long-time rivals of the Daniels, another Scottish gang.A senior officer from the Spanish National Agency has alleged that the gunman who killed Ross Monaghan and Eddie Lyons is linked to the Daniels group.People connected to the Daniels have been targeted in the feud which began three months ago.Ms Farrell said Police Scotland officers are currently in Spain, supporting the work of the Spanish police.But she said the force "wasn't aware" of any evidence the murders were linked to the feud, or had been planned from Scotland.A 44-year-old from Liverpool has been arrested over the killings at the request of the Spanish authorities.Michael Riley is to face an extradition hearing later this year.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
25 minutes ago
- BBC News
Sir David Murray says sorry over sale of Rangers to Craig Whyte
The former owner of Rangers, Sir David Murray, has apologised to fans for his part in the financial calamity that befell the club more than a decade ago. Sir David, who sold the Ibrox side for £1 to businessman Craig Whyte, presided over Ibrox when the club gave £47m in tax-free loans to players and staff between 2001 and Mr Whyte's ownership the Rangers business went into liquidation in 2012 - a year after the a wide-ranging interview with the BBC to mark the publication of his autobiography, Mettle, Sir David said he regretted his decisions and said sorry to fans and club staff. "Of course I'd apologise," he said. "I'm not one of these people who run a company and hide."It was a terrible moment, and I apologise to all the staff, good people, and I know many of them to this day."I'd hope in hindsight, they look at the facts and think I was put in a very difficult position." What were the facts? What was known as the 'big tax case' centred on the club's use of Employee Benefit Trusts (EBTs).EBTs, which were also used by other clubs, enabled Rangers to pay £47m to players, managers and directors between 2001 and 2010 in tax-free argued the payments were earnings and should be tribunals in 2012 and 2014 had previously found in Rangers' favour but the Supreme Court ruled in favour of HMRC after an appeal in case unfolded against a backdrop of financial meltdown for later, Mr Whyte was charged and cleared of taking over the club by fraud.A court heard that his takeover of Rangers was sealed with a pound coin being tossed across a table in Sir David's the time, Mr Whyte had agreed to take on obligations which included paying an £18m bank debt and £5m for David denied failing to carry out due diligence on Mr Whyte, saying: "I went on the facts in front of me." Challenged on whether it was morally acceptable to deprive the NHS and other public services of funds so millionaire footballers could pay less tax, Sir David replied: "They didn't do anything illegal.""Footballers are getting paid too much. Not just at Rangers, everywhere," he went on, adding: "It's avoidance. People do that."Sir David denied that the trophies Rangers had won in this period were tainted by the tax arrangements and also denied that the scheme amounted to buying success, or financial doping."Not at all," he replied, adding: "It was proven in the end it wasn't an illegal tax scheme." Sectarianism, steel and Sir Sean Connery Sir David made his name in the steel industry, forming the company Murray International Metals Limited by the age of 1988, he purchased Rangers for £6m and went on to see the club win 15 league championships and 20 domestic and manager Graeme Souness signed the club's first high-profile Catholic player since World War Two - Mo Johnston, who previously played for Celtic - in 1989. Reflecting on sectarian tensions in Glasgow, which he described in his book as "vitriol", Sir David said the continued singing of sectarian songs at Ibrox was not acceptable."There's no place for that in society," he said. "I don't think it's right and I've said that and I lost some of the support of the Rangers fans by saying that." The businessman also called for an inquiry into the Scottish government's involvement in the sale of two steel processing plants in Lanarkshire to the tycoon Sanjeev sale was backed by a £7m support package from the Scottish government. Sir David claims ministers rejected his rival bid to purchase the business because it was potentially incompatible with state aid rules, and criticised Mr Gupta's management of Liberty Steel in the years Scottish government it had "acted quickly" to support the transaction, adding: "This intervention sustained over 100 jobs at Dalzell and retained steelmaking capacity in Scotland."Sir David was also critical of the industrial policies of both the Scottish and UK governments saying: "It's ridiculous that Britain does not have the capacity to make a steel plate for its defence." Elsewhere in his book, Sir David describes in detail the car accident in 1976 that led to his legs being amputated at the age of 24, a year after founding his metals the way home from a game of rugby in his fibreglass Lotus, a tyre blowout sent him off the road and into a David described how fellow rugby players stopped to help him, using their ties as tourniquets before he was taken to hospital for life-saving surgery."None of us know how tough we are until the time we find out how tough we are," he said."I had a young son of several months old and a boy of two. I'd a young wife. My father had just passed away. I could only go one way. I couldn't fail. I have a responsibility," he chapter in the autobiography is dedicated to Sir Sean Connery, who was a close friend of Sir David' book describes how the pair travelled to Dunblane in the aftermath of the murder of 16 children and their teacher in the Scottish town on 13 March 1996."It was after the terrible news up there that Sean wanted to visit it. And I took him up with some flowers, and quietly he stood for a minute and put some flowers at the school gates. A very difficult moment," said Sir David."He was such a patriot, Sean. He took an interest in Scotland every day and he just wanted to be there."
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE In a plot twist worthy of John le Carré, we reveal the grandfather of the brilliant new head of MI6 was a Nazi spy chief
When Blaise Metreweli was announced as the next head of MI6 it was immediately apparent she had long been groomed for the top. The woman set to become the first female spy chief in the agency's 116-year history had all the right attributes. Fiercely intelligent, Ms Metreweli had grown up abroad in a multilingual home and excelled at Cambridge – where she read anthropology at Pembroke College and was in the winning crew in the 1997 women's Boat Race – before she graduated, and then... disappeared. From the age of 22, her name was only mentioned in public when receiving honours 'for services to British foreign policy' and in a civil service notice documenting a bland economics posting to Dubai. Despite entering her 20s in the Wild West early days of social media, there is no trace of her online. There are no loose-lipped acquaintances, either. Indeed, when the news broke of her appointment earlier this month, the most interesting thing contemporaries could say of her is that she still enjoyed rowing. It seemed, then, that MI6 had done its job. Its legendary vetting services had succeeded in keeping a lid on everything about Ms Metreweli's no doubt remarkable double life. But there is one thing neither she nor the world's most famous intelligence agency could control, the one thing that none of us get to choose – her family. Archives in Germany reveal that the woman who from September will take charge of the nation's secrets is the granddaughter of a notorious Nazi collaborator who spied and killed for Adolf Hitler's Germany. We can disclose that Ms Metreweli's grandfather was Constantine Dobrowolski, a Ukrainian dubbed 'The Butcher' who defected from the Red Army to become the Fatherland's chief informant in the region of Chernihiv in Ukraine. While Ms Metreweli never met her paternal grandfather – who remained in Nazi-occupied Ukraine while the rest of his family fled the Soviet 'liberation' of the region in 1943 – his story does cast an awkward shadow over her impeccable career in MI5, MI6 and the Foreign Office. The Mail has unearthed hundreds of pages of documents held in archives in Freiburg, Germany, detailing the extraordinary – and blood-soaked – life and times of Dobrowolski which are themselves worthy of a spy thriller. Known as 'Agent No 30' by Wehrmacht commanders, he had vowed revenge against the Russians ever since they slaughtered his noble land-owning family, plundered their estate and seized Ukraine after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. The archives detail how the Soviets put a 50,000-rouble bounty – £200,000 in today's money – on the head of the local spy chief they labelled 'the worst enemy of the Ukrainian people'. Within the files are handwritten letters from Ms Metreweli's grandfather to Nazi superiors signed off 'Heil Hitler'. Shockingly, Dobrowolski boasted to German commanders of 'personally' taking part 'in the extermination of the Jews' and killing hundreds of Ukrainian resistance fighters. There are even accounts of him looting the bodies of Holocaust victims and laughing at the sexual assault of female prisoners. Of course, Ms Metreweli cannot be judged for the sins of her grandfather. One of our nation's most formidable intelligence operatives, she has served her country with distinction on dangerous operations for MI6 across Europe and the Middle East for two decades in the wake of 9/11. She then moved to a senior role at MI5 – the UK's domestic counterintelligence and security agency – again winning praise from insiders for her handling of hostile states' counterintelligence. It was long predicted by those in the know that she would, one day, take the top job at for Ms Metreweli – now coming out of the shadows as MI6's incoming chief, a role that allows her name to be known for the first time – there can be no doubt her grandfather's wartime crimes pose a challenge. They will be seized upon by the Kremlin, which has sought to portray Ukrainians as 'Nazis' and similarly smear Kyiv's Western backers since its illegal full-scale invasion in 2022. Indeed, Vladimir Putin's supporters have already discovered that her paternal heritage is Ukrainian, not Georgian as her surname suggests, and tried to use that fact to imply she is descended from a Nazi. Beka Kobakhidze, a professor of modern history at Ilia State University in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, who helped the Mail uncover the Metreweli family tree, said it was only a matter of time until the Kremlin found and exploited the truth – if they don't already know it. 'As a historian and researcher from a country that grapples daily with Russian propaganda, I can say with confidence that this will become a favourite talking point for Kremlin propagandists for years to come,' he said. 'Of course, children should not be held responsible for the sins of their fathers – or grandparents, for that matter. But I do find it puzzling why the UK would willingly hand such 'ammunition' to the Russians.' The Russians will, no doubt, twist every word to their own sinister agenda. Yet if there is anyone equipped to handle such cheap shots from a hostile foreign power, it is the trailblazing Ms Metreweli. What is indisputable is that the story of how a Nazi spy chief's own granddaughter rose to lead MI6 is nothing short of astounding. When Ms Metreweli was appointed as the next head of the Secret Intelligence Service two weeks ago it was greeted with fanfare in the UK. Some 30 years after Dame Judi Dench became the first woman to take up the fictional 'M' character in the James Bond movies, life had finally imitated art and the real MI6 had its first female spy chief, aka 'C'. But it was also met with jubilation some 3,000 miles away in the tiny Black Sea nation of Georgia – for this is where the Metreweli name hails from (though traditionally spelt with a v). 'Our name originates from the mountainous region of Racha, from a village called Utsera,' local historian Roin Metreveli said. 'The thing about Georgian villages, much like in Scotland, is that everyone is related, everyone is either a cousin or thrice removed.' Mr Metreveli then added, jokingly: 'So, I can confidently claim that my cousin will be James Bond's boss!' Back in the UK, the new spy chief's surname had also piqued our interest at the Daily Mail. Georgia is a colourful part of the world and, if Ms Metreweli's forbears were as capable as her, then their life under the Soviet Union, and their subsequent journey to the UK, was surely an interesting tale. Yet almost immediately, the Georgian connection unravelled. Ms Metreweli's father, Constantine Metreweli, is a British military veteran and renowned radiologist who raised his daughter and her siblings in Hong Kong. Because he was born abroad, there was little trace of him in Britain. That is, aside from an intriguing entry in the London Gazette, an official UK government journal of record, from 1966 which reads: 'Dobrowolski, Constantine (known as Constantine Metreweli); Of uncertain nationality.' It did not take long for Putin's agents, who have a far more pernicious interest in the Metreweli back story, to find this. For them, this was proof enough that the incoming MI6 spy chief was a Ukrainian, despite the Dobrowolski surname also being common in Poland. Not just that, but for one Russian propagandist this was somehow evidence that it was likely her grandfather was a Nazi. 'Post-war Ukrainian emigration to Britain largely consisted of members of the SS Galicia division who surrendered to the British in Italy,' he wrote to his supporters on numerous social media channels days after Ms Metreweli's appointment. These unfounded claims were soon being widely repeated in the Russian Press. It set in motion a race between historians in Russia, Georgia and Ukraine to get to the truth. Why did Ms Metreweli's father go by what appeared to be an alias? Was it a mark of respect to a selfless family who saved the Dobrowolskis from Nazi prison camps, as one suggested? Could there be a more innocent explanation? Or, in fact, was this a cover for a darker family secret as those in Moscow claimed? As academics across the former Soviet states posted competing theories online and dug through respective records, the Mail requested the public file to which the London Gazette notice referred in the National Archives – a Home Office naturalisation certificate for Mr Metreweli. It showed he was born on January 1, 1943, in Snovsk, Ukraine, to parents 'Constantin Dobrowolski and Barbara Metreweli, formerly Barbara Dobrowolska (of uncertain nationality)'. Further searches found that Metreweli was not an alias but instead the surname of Constantine Jr's stepfather, David Metreweli, who married his mother, Barbara Dobrowolska, in Yorkshire in 1947. We had to determine why the name had passed on to his stepson, and in turn to his step-granddaughter who is now set to become MI6 spy chief. And, crucially, who was Constantine Dobrowolski Sr? We contacted a Ukrainian expert in the field who had been sharing his musings on the subject and gave him our findings on Ms Metreweli's grandparents. The reply was succinct. 'F***. The Russians are right.' Therein ended the collaboration. Because Constantine Dobrowolski was born abroad, there was little trace of him in Britain. That is, aside from this intriguing entry in the London Gazette But it did not take long for us – and others – to circle in on the Dobrowolskis' life in Snovsk, and what we found astonished us. Dr Giorgi Astamadze, of the University of Karlsruhe in Germany, was another Georgian historian who started the search hoping to unearth Ms Metreweli's roots. And as he uncovered her past he soon realised the political implications if this information was not handled with care and sensitivity, and so agreed to come on board with our investigation. 'As we dug deeper, the initial excitement gave way to a growing sense of horror,' he said. 'More and more disturbing details began to emerge from Constantine Dobrowolski's ominous past. 'There's an entire archive in Germany – three volumes, over 500 pages – and together, they tell a truly harrowing story.' After a little digging, we came across an identity that matched in the Federal Military Archives located in Freiburg, Germany. Indeed, we found several tomes on a Ukrainian Nazi collaborator who was known to his enemies as 'The Butcher'. As we scoured them, the Russians were closing in. They too had discovered her step-grandfather was David Metreweli and posted unfounded claims falsely stating he was a Nazi. Separately, pro-Russia historians trying to paint Ukrainians as collaborators had for years been writing long blog posts on Constantine Dobrowolski Sr, whose crimes are well documented in Soviet histories. They had not yet made the link to the new MI6 chief, but it was only a matter of time. We had to be certain of the genealogy and pored over hundreds of pages of primary- source correspondence between Constantine Sr and his Nazi superiors. Just as in the naturalisation certificate for Constantine Jr, they showed Constantine Sr had a wife called Varvara, the Russian spelling of Barbara, and at some point in early 1943 they had a child together in Snovsk – a town then home to around just 6,000 people. While Constantine Sr stayed to fight the Soviets, who were 'liberating' Ukraine from the East, such was his standing he got safe passage from the Nazis for his wife and new child – then just two months old – to flee West towards Germany that February. Somehow, from there, it appears Varvara and her child ended up in Britain where she anglicised her name to Barbara and married a new partner, Georgian-born David Metreweli, in Yorkshire after the war. On her wedding certificate, she marked her status as 'widowed'. So her son, Constantine Jr, grew up a Metreweli – perhaps because he never knew his real father, whom he parted with when barely a few months old, or possibly because Barbara was wanting to suppress their dark family history. In time, the Metreweli name passed down the family line to his own children, including to his daughter, who from September will head up the very same intelligence service that was fighting against her grandfather in the Second World War. So, who exactly was Constantine Dobrowolski Sr, and what were his crimes? Extensive letters to his Nazi commanders between 1941 and 1943 give a detailed biography of the man in his own words – which make for uncomfortable reading. Born in the Chernihiv region of Ukraine to a German-Polish father and a Ukrainian mother in 1906, his family had a small estate of 1,300 acres. When he was just 11, the Bolsheviks invaded, destroyed his house, and 'exterminated' nearly all of his relatives. He survived on the run for years, obtaining a fake ID and travelling to Moscow – but was caught in 1926 and sentenced to ten years in Siberia for anti-Soviet agitation, anti-Semitism and concealing his ancestry. Returning from exile in 1937, he studied economic engineering in Vladivostok before being assigned to Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, to purchase machinery tools in April 1941 when the Germans invaded. Dobrowolski immediately reported to the War Commissariat and requested to be sent to the front, where he defected to the Nazis at the first opportunity on August 4, 1941. Explaining himself to his new German commanders, he wrote: 'If drafted into the Red Army, my political unreliability would have meant I would only have been used in the rear. I had long hoped that Germany would enter the war with Russia.' He immediately reported to his local military branch and requested that he be sent to the front. 'I wanted to use the panic to get over to the German side in this way, and all the more quickly,' Dobrowolski wrote. Paid just 81 Reichsmark per month by the Nazis – around £250 today, an amount that put him on the lowest rung of the German workforce – Dobrowolski was clearly not motivated by money. Initially, he served with an SS tank unit, and later told Nazi officers: 'There, I oversaw captured Russian vehicles and personally took part in front-line action near Kyiv and in the extermination of Jews.' Some historians claim he may even have taken part in the Babyn Yar massacre, in which more than 30,000 Jews were slaughtered over two days in Kyiv, but our research suggests that is false. In letters, he says he left Kyiv for his home district of Sosyntsia on September 22, 1941 – seven days before the massacre. But the history here is just as grim, with the local Jewish community destroyed and more than 300 Jews shot under Nazi occupation. Constantine Sr told his commanders that he had organised a Ukrainian police unit of 300 men who 'cleared' 12 sub-districts there between October and December 1941. During this time, Ukrainian police assisted German murder squads and Hungarian soldiers shooting the Jewish population. One harrowing account claimed that Dobrowolski was part of a police force that is said to have raped, shot, and robbed the bodies of Jewish women in Ponornytsia, Chernihiv – though he is not believed to have taken part in the massacre and sexual assault. Over a year later a witness, interrogated by the Germans, claimed Constantine Sr's subordinate gave him 'a gold watch' from one of the victims. 'I had access to [Constantine Sr's] residence in Sosnytsia and saw many valuable possessions there, such as carpets, tablecloths, silk shawls, and a luxurious fur coat, which originated from the Jewish executions in Ponornytsia,' the witness said. The same witness claimed that he 'overheard' a conversation in which Constantine Sr simply 'laughed' on being told 'that female prisoners in the jail were being sexually abused through violence'. He allegedly said that he 'tolerated these acts without objection'. By his own account, Constantine Sr said he 'cleansed' various districts 'of undesirable elements'. He was commended by a Hungarian colonel for his 'excellent reconnaissance' in this task in December 1941. After this, the Soviets put the 50,000-rouble bounty on his head. A Red Army lieutenant colonel told his men: 'The fascist man-eater who has returned with the Germans, Dobrowolski, whom you all know, is taking revenge for his lost property and houses by killing and shooting the best of our people helping the Red Army... 'In order to eliminate him as quickly as possible, as the worst enemy of the Ukrainian people, I am offering a reward of 50,000 roubles to anyone who delivers this fascist Dobrowolski to us, dead or alive, and he will be proposed for an award from the government.' Constantine Sr rose to become a local intelligence chief, first serving as an inspector for the Hiwi – Eastern European Nazi collaborators – before joining the Nazis' notorious secret military police, the Geheime Feldpolizei (GFP), in July 1942. The GFP operated under the Commissar Order which instructed them to summarily execute captured local political leaders, partisans and Jewish people in 'cleansing operations'. Soviet propaganda claimed Constantine Sr would assure Ukrainians that he was fighting with partisans against the Nazis. Then, once he had identified the local resistance, he had them executed. A German assessment said of him: 'Captain Dobrowolski is a convinced opponent of Bolshevism and, accordingly, the most hated man among the Bolsheviks. His political convictions bind him firmly to the side of the German Wehrmacht, to which he has become an absolutely reliable and valuable assistant.' It concludes: 'In summary, it can be said that Captain Dobrowolski is a reliable comrade and talented gang fighter.' Though it is not detailed how Constantine Sr met Varvara, she is mentioned increasingly in correspondence between him and commanding Nazis from 1942 before a request is made to get her and his son out of Snovsk in 1943 as the Soviets are moving in. He is granted a pass for a 'confidential mission' to bring his 'wife and child' from Snovsk to Uman, south-west Ukraine, from which they are to be 'provided with the necessary railway travel documents'. The Soviets succeeded in taking Chernihiv by September 1943, and the last record of Constantine Sr in the archives is from the previous month. There, the trail runs cold. Barbara claimed she was a widow when marrying in 1947, and it is to be presumed that her previous partner was killed as Nazi Germany fell. A Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office spokesman said last night: 'Blaise Metreweli neither knew nor met her paternal grandfather. Blaise's ancestry is characterised by conflict and division and, as is the case for many with eastern European heritage, only partially understood. 'It is precisely this complex heritage which has contributed to her commitment to prevent conflict and protect the British public from modern threats from today's hostile states, as the next chief of MI6.' The Mail agrees – we could not be in safer hands. And yet the intrigue does not quite end there. For Constantine Sr is listed in a Soviet book documenting the enemies of the USSR – published in 1969. 'He is tall, thin, has black hair, brown eyes, a straight nose, a large forehead, a dimple on his chin, and a tattoo of a horseshoe and a horse's head on his arm below the elbow,' it reads. It adds that the 'wanted case' is a man who 'limps after a leg fracture' and that there is 'a photograph from 1943 and a handwriting sample available'. Though, surely, it is highly unlikely that he survived, this does raise the tantalising possibility that, unknown to authorities – and to his own family – Constantine Dobrowolski Sr, the man his enemies dubbed 'The Butcher', somehow managed to disappear into the shadows and live out the rest of his days.
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Crackdown on Scotland gang war: Police arrest 49 suspects including boy, 17, after spate of shootings, firebombings and assaults rocked Edinburgh and Glasgow
A teenager has been arrested on suspicion of firebombing amid a crackdown against Scotland's violent gang wars - as the total number of people arrested has now risen to 49. A 17-year-old boy is the latest arrest in connection with Operation Portaledge, the ongoing investigation into a series of shootings, firebombings and assaults across the east and west of the country. The spate of violent incidents began in Edinburgh and the east of Scotland in March, but spread to the Glasgow region in April and May. Police Scotland Chief Constable Jo Farrell announced the latest arrest during a meeting of the Scottish Police Authority in Edinburgh on Thursday and urged anyone with information to contact police. She said: 'The support of our communities is essential when it comes to tackling serious and organised crime, preventing violence and getting justice for victims, and I want to thank the public for their assistance so far and encourage anyone else with information to come forward.' Police Scotland said the 17-year-old boy was arrested on Tuesday and charged in relation to two alleged wilful fireraisings in Edinburgh during the early hours of June 9 in Niddrie Marischal Crescent and Campion Road. He was released on an undertaking to appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court at a later date. In her report for the SPA, the chief constable also reiterated that Scottish police believe there is nothing to suggest that the deaths of two men in Spain are linked to recent incidents in Scotland. The two men, understood to be Eddie Lyons Junior and Ross Monaghan, died after a gunman opened fire outside Monaghans Bar in Fuengirola, Malaga, on May 31. The chief constable's report states: 'Police Scotland is supporting Spanish police following the fatal shootings in Fuengirola. 'At this time, there is no evidence to suggest these deaths are linked to the recent criminal attacks in Scotland being investigated as part of Operation Portaledge or that the shooting was planned within Scotland.' A man has been arrested in Liverpool in connection with the deaths in Malaga. The 44-year-old man appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court on Saturday, June 14 and has been remanded in custody, police said.
