Notorious crime clan gran Big Mags Haney accused of "grassing" in new podcast
Notorious crime clan gran Mags Haney has been accused of being a police informant.
The claim is made in a new BBC podcast about the larger than life vigilante, public enemy and heroin dealer, who died in 2013 after a life full of controversy.
In the six-part Ballad of Big Mags series, former detective Simon McLean says he has no doubt that the gravel-voiced granny was known by cops in Stirling to be running a drugs racket.
But he believes she was given a free pass because she was snitching on other criminals.
The BBC podcast hears of the rise and fall of Haney, including details on how a Daily Record investigation in 2000 led to her being given a 12 year jail sentence.
The podcast, which launches today (FRIDAY) hears claims that Haney, who was 70 when she died, was only stopped after the Daily Record labelled her Dealer Number One in a big drugs expose in 2000.
Former undercover officer Simon McLean is asked by presenter Myles Bonnar why Big Mags wasn't shut down earlier - despite the whole town knowing her to be a drug dealer.
McLean says: 'Because of the relationships with the police.
'I've dealt with many, many, many terrorists and very, serious criminals, both nationally and internationally, and I've never known a successful criminal or who people would regard as successful, who's made a lot of money and made a life out of it, that hasn't been talking and informing to the police at some level.'
When asked if she was a criminal informant, McLean doubles down. He says: 'There's no, absolutely no 'if' about that whatsoever.
McLean explains how such informant relationships work.
He says: 'If I'm running a criminal empire and the police are on me and they know what I'm up to, it's in the press every other day. And the police are coming to the door, there's local police, the police are searching houses. I need a relationship with these guys to get them off my case. And that's true of every criminal activity.
'I've seen it a hundred times, more, where a heroin dealer especially thinks that somebody else is getting into his marketplace, then he'll shop them to me. Because he wants them off the street.
'When you think about it, it's common sense, isn't it? It's dog eat dog. I mean, let's be honest, they'll shoot each other, they'll kill each other. So there's no problem them shopping each other to the police. Where would we be without informants?"
McLean adds: 'The Haneys were a small change really, but a big, big problem in their community. And that's what matters. So, a huge problem, and it needed to be smashed. And that's what we did.'
Chain-smoker Mags ruled over an empire peddling heroin and pocketing huge sums of cash while members of her family did her bidding.
The granny and mother-of-11 put herself forward as a vigilante against the threat of child abusers, even appearing on the Kilroy TV show to talk about protecting youngsters.
But in 2003 - after the Daily Record exposed her crimes - Haney admitted running a £250,000-a-year drugs operation, utilising a network of delivery runners, including her own children, grandchildren and nieces.
She was jailed for 12 years, serving half that sentence at Cornton Vale prison, before being released in 2009.
Haney suffered from a variety of health problems before dying from cancer in 2013 aged 70.
The six-part series will be available on BBC Sounds from Friday, August 8.
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