Ex-top cop on catalyst for Scotland's gang war after Spain shootings

Glasgow Times

2 days ago

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."