Edinburgh's bitter gangland feud linked back to a decades-old £20k drug heist

Edinburgh Live

3 days ago

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A gangland feud broke out in Edinburgh earlier this year, though tensions have been brewing for decades.
The 'wars', which saw homes firebombed and gunshots fired, began in the capital back in March - since spreading across the central belt. According to the Daily Record, the feud dates back to 2001.
Just as Tony Blair won his second term for Labour, and the first Harry Potter movie was due for release, a different kind of plot was unfolding at Milton housing scheme in Glasgow.
A large stash of cocaine worth about £20,000 belonging to the feared Daniel crime family had been stolen from a safe house on the estate that summer. It had gone missing at a house party at the address. The drugs -unsurprisingly - were not returned or paid for.
The Daniel family then learned the drugs had either been sold to or -appropriated by a rival organised crime group, the Lyons. At the time both were battling for control of the drugs trade on the north side of the city.
Head of the Daniel family was the formidable Jamie Daniel, one of four brothers from the city's Possilpark. On the other side the Lyons were led by Eddie Lyons snr.
He ran a community centre called Chirnsyde in Milton. It was claimed a group based there called the Club Boys - which included his son Steven - had orchestrated the theft.
In the organised crime world a drugs debt, no matter how small, must be paid. Failure to do so can result in a loss of face. Jamie Daniel knew that.
A wave of attacks by the Daniels followed as they fought to maintain their control of the area's drugs trade. The response was orchestrated by 24-year-old Kevin "Gerbil" Carroll - an up-and-coming figure in the Daniel clan close to Jamie Daniel and in a relationship with his daughter Kelly.
First, the Daniel crew tried to shoot Steven Lyons outside a pub in -Lambhill, Glasgow, in September 2001 - but the gunman missed. They then turned their -attention to the Chirnsyde centre. It was torched causing £30,000 of damage and had its minibus trashed.
Carroll was in turn blasted twice in the leg with a sawn-off shotgun outside his mum's house in Milton in January 2003 but survived. Just 11 days later, Eddie Lyons's brother Johnny, 49, was shot outside his home in nearby Stornoway Street. The wallet in his back pocket took the impact and the doctors think that may have saved him.
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In April 2006, as the feud continued, Carroll drove to Cumbernauld where he blasted another of Lyons's sons, Eddie Lyons jnr, at his door but failed to kill him. Then in November that year, Carroll allegedly used a tow rope to topple the headstone of Eddie snr's late son Garry, who was only eight when he died of leukaemia in 1991.
The desecration of his grave marked a new low in the escalating conflict. Carroll had crossed a line but was still not satisfied. Two days later he ambushed and attempted to shoot Eddie Lyons jnr for a second time, in Bellshill, Lanarkshire. Lyons suffered minor injuries when his own car rolled over him. A henchman was hit with at least one round but survived.
Eight days later the Lyons struck back when Carroll was shot along with a close associate Ross Sherlock in Clelland Avenue, a residential street in Bishopbriggs, near Glasgow. Carroll suffered serious injuries as he was hit in the stomach from close range. Sherlock was hit in the legs. The violence culminated in one of the most brazen murders the city had ever seen.
On Wednesday, December 6, 2006, a blue Mazda car drew up outside Applerow Motors in Balmore Road, Lambhill, shortly after 2pm. The garage was owned by David Lyons, brother of Eddie snr, and was operated by both him and his nephew Mark. Two men in black overcoats and "old men" face masks and brandishing handguns got out and opened fire in what was later described in court as being like a scene from The Godfather.
Eleven shots were fired, leaving mechanic Michael Lyons dead, and his cousin Steven Lyons and Lyons -associate Robert Pickett, 41, seriously injured. Lyons was in plaster for up to 12 weeks with a broken leg and required part of a bullet to be removed from his back. Robert Pickett, who had served time for attempted murder, was left in a coma for a month and lost a kidney after being shot in the stomach.
A bloody gangland feud which had largely been conducted in the shadows was now headline news. Two Daniel associates - Raymond Anderson, 46, and James McDonald, 34 - stood trial at the High Court in Glasgow in March 2008.
The court heard David Lyons received a "ransom note" at his home after the murder demanding £25,000 - the current value of the allegedly stolen cocaine. It read: "The boys owe me £25,000 and I want what's owed to me. It's for drugs. They all know what it's about. The money doesn't matter to me as it's got to be paid to the piper."
Lyons didn't pay the money and handed the letter to the police. The multiple shooting which lasted only a few minutes had taken place yards from a special needs school.
(Image: Daily Record)
Ironically the school was to be the venue for a public meeting for people to air their growing fears about rising crime and gangland violence in the area. Already concerns had been raised about the role of the Lyons in the running of Chirnsyde and the £1.4million in taxpayers' cash it had received over the years.
The murderous events would lead to the closure of the centre and funding finally being withdrawn. High levels of security were put in place throughout the trial which finished in May 2008.
The case was heard in court No3 - which has been designed for terrorist accused - and people entering had to pass through a metal detector and police checks. Both Anderson and McDonald were convicted of illegal possession of guns and ammunition, the attempted murder of Steven Lyons and Robert Pickett, and Michael Lyons's murder.
They had been heard in secret conversations taped by police talking about the "piper" mentioned in the letter sent to David Lyons. At the time Campbell Corrigan was a detective superintendent with Strathclyde Police and was in charge of the Applerow murder investigation.
He became aware of the Daniel clan influence as far back as the 80s when he was a young detective in Govan, Glasgow and saw their rise to power in the city as he built his own career. Campbell retired in 2013. He was the force's last chief constable before Police Scotland was formed.
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He told the Record: "The victim Michael Lyons was an innocent member of the family who just got caught in the Crossfire.
"I was aware of the connection with Gerbil to Jamie Daniel's daughter and he directed a lot of the violence that had occurred. When you think of the Lyons on one side and the Daniels on the other side, it is a pretty long-running Glasgow feud."
He also described how his team had to overcome "fear in the community" over speaking out about both the Lyons and Daniel families. He added: "These were guys not to be trifled with. It will take a very concerted effort before you are able to undermine them."
After the jury's verdict, judge Lord Hardie branded MichaelLyons's murder a "a cold-blooded, premeditated assassination". Lord Hardie ordered the men to serve 35 years each before they could be considered for parole, the highest tariff ever set by a Scottish court. The terms were reduced on appeal to 30.
However if the judge thought the tough sentences would stop the carnage, he was mistaken. Less than two years later. Scotland would be shocked by a murder that took the long-running feud to -terrifying new levels.