Latest news with #MonaghansBar
Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Yahoo
The Scottish ‘tartan turf war' that went global
With a three-hour 'happy hour' and four big-screen TVs, Monaghans Bar in the Spanish resort of Fuengirola is a popular spot for those who like a night of soccer after a day of sun and sand. But on Saturday night, after drinkers watched the UEFA Champions League Final, a showdown of a less sporting sort unfolded outside. Just as the bar was emptying around 11.30pm, a car pulled up outside from which a black-clad gunman emerged. He shot dead the bar's Scottish owner, Ross Monaghan, and his Glaswegian friend Eddie Lyons Junior, before fleeing into the night. The double murder was the latest in a series of recent shootings on Spain's southern coast, long considered the 'Costa Del Crime'. Yet the hit may have been ordered from the rather less balmy climes of Glasgow, where a quarter-century feud between the city's two most powerful crime families is now spiralling out of control. In scenes that resemble an over-hyped episode of Taggart, the rival Lyons and Daniel gangs have been in open warfare for the past three months. Scores of homes and businesses, including garages, cab firms and beauty parlours, have been firebombed. Suspected associates have been attacked with machetes. Masked thugs behind the mayhem post videos of their handiwork online – shattering decades of painstaking PR in which Glasgow reinvented itself as a 'City of Culture'. The so-called 'tartan turf wars' are a throwback to the rougher Red Clydeside movement of the 1960s, when razor gangs terrorised the city. Today's Glasgow hard men, though, wield much deadlier weaponry than long-handled shaving blades, and their fiefdoms are no longer confined to council estates like Easterhouse. Attacks have taken place all over central Scotland, spreading to well-heeled districts of Edinburgh too. The feud reportedly dates back to the Lyons gang stealing a drug stash from the Daniels some 25 years ago, but onlookers fear it has become a battle to master the entirety of urban Scotland's lucrative drug trade. 'These groups have grown obscenely wealthy, preying on communities of very vulnerable people,' says MSP Russell Findlay, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, who says the government has been complacent about the rising threat of organised crime. 'These two individuals who were killed were prominent members of organised crime, and while it's still unclear who was behind their deaths, it seems they are paying the price for the lifestyle they led.' Mr Findlay is well-qualified to comment on the subject, having previously worked as an investigative crime reporter for Scottish TV and tabloid newspapers. In 2012, he wrote a book about the Daniel-Lyons feud, chronicling the misery it inflicted on Glasgow's Milton housing estate, the Lyons' original stronghold. The book's title, Caught in the Crossfire, was to prove horribly prophetic: three years later, Findlay himself was attacked on his doorstep by a knifeman who threw acid in his face. It was the kind of brazen intimidation more associated with Latin American narco-states – something that Scotland will come to resemble if more is not done, he warns. 'I remember thinking at the time: 'Why is nobody else saying enough is enough?'' he says. 'This is what happens when organised crime becomes too powerful: they try to take on mainstream society.' Spanish police have yet to identify the Fuengirola gunman, who some reports claim was a blonde-haired man presumed to be a fellow Scot. Scottish police, however, are likely to have no shortage of suspects already on their files. Both Monaghan, 43, and Lyons Junior, 46, were members of the Lyons gang, and no strangers to the art of the gangland hit themselves. Monaghan had been arrested then acquitted of the 2010 murder of Kevin 'Gerbil' Carroll, a notorious Daniel-gang enforcer. He then moved to Spain after being shot in the shoulder in Glasgow in 2017. He and Lyons Junior both also stood trial for attacking three men outside a bar in Dunbartonshire in 2016, the case only collapsing when the alleged victims claimed they had no memory of what happened. Indeed, those caught up in Lyons-Daniel violence have a marked tendency to 'forget' their testimony, much to the frustration of police. One incident that neither gang ever seems to have forgotten, though, is the theft of £20,000 worth of cocaine back in 2001 from a Daniel safe house. Nicknamed 'Morningside Speed' in honour of the posh Edinburgh suburb of the same name, cocaine was then relatively new to Scotland. Previously, heroin had been the drug of choice on impoverished housing estates – courtesy of smugglers like Jamie Daniel, the Daniel-gang founder, who flooded Glasgow with it in the early Eighties. Cocaine, though, was far more lucrative, and the theft of the stash, while relatively small in value, sparked a wider turf war over dealing patches. Escalating the violence was Carroll, who had allegedly been bullied by the Lyons' family during his schooldays, and was now a senior enforcer for the Daniel gang. He was infamous for so-called 'alien abductions', where rivals would be kidnapped, tortured and then dumped semi-naked on the street, too traumatised (or too terrified) to say what had happened to them. Not content with inflicting physical harm, he also vandalised a gravestone for Eddie Lyon Junior's younger brother, Garry, who died from leukaemia aged eight in 1991. Perceived as an outrage even by gangland standards, that act led to Carroll himself being shot dead in an Asda car park in Glasgow in 2010, in full view of horrified shoppers. So reviled was Carroll that police had nearly 100 potential suspects for his murder, and his death might have drawn a line under the feud. But it flared up again in 2016 when Jamie Daniel passed away from cancer – one of the few gang kingpins to die peacefully. His death left a power vacuum, which the Lyons' clan tried to exploit through five attempted murders in just five months. In one particularly savage case, Stephen 'Bonzo' Daniel was hunted down after a 100mph car chase through north Glasgow, before having his face macheted so badly that paramedics thought at first that he had been shot. 'His nose was hanging off on the left hand side near his ear', a policeman told a later trial of six Lyons associates, who were convicted of the five murder plots in 2019. Jailing them for a total of 104 years, a judge told them: 'You sought to turn Glasgow into a war zone for your feud. This is a civilised city, based on the rule of law.' With the violence now flaring up again, many Scots might well doubt that – not least those living in the streets where properties have been firebombed. While the gang kingpins often live in fortress-like mansions, equipped with CCTV, safe rooms and anti-ram-raid bollards, their footsoldiers often live on suburban estates. The precise spark for the latest hostilities remains unknown, although some believe it may be linked to the gangs' growing links to international drug cartels. The Lyons gang is said to have forged close links to Ireland's feared Kinahan cocaine cartel, whose senior members holed up in Dubai after pressure from the Dublin authorities. One Lyons family member has also lived in Dubai since an attempt on his life in Glasgow in 2006, and is said to have formed a 'Celtic cartel' with his Irish counterparts, whereby Lyons street dealers distribute Kinahan-supplied cocaine. Scottish police have already arrested at least 40 people over the feud, while Angela Constance, the SNP Justice Secretary, insisted that law-abiding Scots had nothing to fear. 'Scotland continues to be a safe place to live, with recorded crime down 40 per cent since 2006/07,' she said last month. Critics, however, complain the police service remains underfunded. For Findlay, the problems go even deeper. Far too much of Scotland's establishment, he says, has given the gangs the benefit of the doubt – from the Edinburgh professionals who act as their defence lawyers and accountants, to Left-leaning politicians who see them as victims of social injustice. He remembers how, in the mid-Nineties, Eddie Lyons Senior was given use of a former school in Milton for a 'community project', despite already being well-known to police. Objections, Findlay says, were overlooked by councillors who naively regarded Lyons Senior as a community activist. The centre was later shut down amid complaints it had become a gang hub. But Findlay cites multiple other examples where gangs are still flexing their muscles. In South Lanarkshire, a fellow Tory councillor, Graeme Campbell, quit his role after rows over planning issues led to gangsters attacking his house three times. And at jails across the country, prison officers' cars have been firebombed at least a dozen times. 'You've got attacks on journalists, councillors, prison officers: Scotland's isn't a narco-state, but this is how these things start. And, too often, the SNP's ethos has been to justify and explain, not to punish and deter – it is a social work mentality. The gangs must be rubbing their hands with glee,' he said. Meanwhile, in Spain, there are fears that violence could escalate further and Ana Mula, the mayor of Fuengirola, is calling for more resources to combat organised crime. She said: 'We live in a world and at a time where crime knows no borders. In places like the Costa del Sol, we're seeing developments that, as they spread, inevitable affect us. We need much greater involvement from the state on this issue.' Reports last month claimed the Lyons gang was seeking a truce in the feud. Given the recent events in Fuengirola that now seems unlikely. As Findlay points out, though, Saturday's shootings might not be connected to the Scottish feud at all, but rather the larger, global players that the Lyons gang is now part of. 'It could have been the work of their long-standing enemies in Scotland,' he said. 'But, out in Spain, they are swimming with much bigger sharks – who may be even more ruthless than they are.' 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Powys County Times
2 days ago
- General
- Powys County Times
‘No intelligence' linking Spain shootings to suspected gang feud, police say
There is 'no intelligence' to suggest the deaths of two Scots in a Spanish bar are linked to recent criminal attacks in Scotland's central belt, police have said. 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 Saturday. The attack took place at around 11pm, when a car pulled up outside the bar and a masked man got out before opening fire on the two as they stood outside the venue. The gunman then fled in the car, with both men dying at the scene. In a statement released on Tuesday Police Scotland said the attack did not appear to be linked with a series of criminal acts by rival groups in Scotland, and that any speculation to that end was 'not helpful' to the investigation. The statement read: 'The investigation into the fatal shootings in Fuengirola is being carried out by Spanish police. 'Police Scotland is supporting Spanish police where requested, however, at this time we have no officers deployed within Spain. 'There is currently no intelligence to suggest the deaths of these two men in Spain are linked to the recent criminal attacks in Scotland being investigated as part of Operation Portaledge. 'Any misinformation or speculation linking the events in Spain are not helpful to the ongoing investigations in either country. 'There is also nothing to suggest that the shooting in Fuengirola was planned from within Scotland.' Operation Portaledge is investigating a suspected gang feud that has been linked with a number of shootings, firebombings and assaults in the Glasgow and Edinburgh areas since March.
Edinburgh Live
2 days ago
- General
- Edinburgh Live
Police say 'no intelligence' links Edinburgh gang feuds to Spanish shooting
Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info There is "no intelligence" to suggest the deaths of two Scots in a Spanish bar are linked to recent criminal attacks in Scotland's central belt, police have said. 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 Saturday. The attack took place at around 11pm, when a car pulled up outside the bar and a masked man got out before opening fire on the two as they stood outside the venue. The gunman then fled in the car, with both men dying at the scene. In a statement released on Tuesday, Police Scotland said the attack did not appear to be linked with a series of criminal acts by rival groups in Scotland, and that any speculation to that end was "not helpful" to the investigation. The statement read: "The investigation into the fatal shootings in Fuengirola is being carried out by Spanish police. Sign up for Edinburgh Live newsletters for more headlines straight to your inbox "Police Scotland is supporting Spanish police where requested, however, at this time we have no officers deployed within Spain. There is currently no intelligence to suggest the deaths of these two men in Spain are linked to the recent criminal attacks in Scotland being investigated as part of Operation Portaledge. "Any misinformation or speculation linking the events in Spain are not helpful to the ongoing investigations in either country. There is also nothing to suggest that the shooting in Fuengirola was planned from within Scotland." Join Edinburgh Live's Whatsapp Community here and get the latest news sent straight to your messages. Operation Portaledge is investigating a suspected gang feud that has been linked with a number of shootings, firebombings and assaults in the Glasgow and Edinburgh areas since March. So far more than 40 people have been arrested in connection with the incidents.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
‘No intelligence' linking Spain shootings to suspected gang feud, police say
There is 'no intelligence' to suggest the deaths of two Scots in a Spanish bar are linked to recent criminal attacks in Scotland's central belt, police have said. 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 Saturday. The attack took place at around 11pm, when a car pulled up outside the bar and a masked man got out before opening fire on the two as they stood outside the venue. The gunman then fled in the car, with both men dying at the scene. In a statement released on Tuesday Police Scotland said the attack did not appear to be linked with a series of criminal acts by rival groups in Scotland, and that any speculation to that end was 'not helpful' to the investigation. The statement read: 'The investigation into the fatal shootings in Fuengirola is being carried out by Spanish police. 'Police Scotland is supporting Spanish police where requested, however, at this time we have no officers deployed within Spain. 'There is currently no intelligence to suggest the deaths of these two men in Spain are linked to the recent criminal attacks in Scotland being investigated as part of Operation Portaledge. 'Any misinformation or speculation linking the events in Spain are not helpful to the ongoing investigations in either country. 'There is also nothing to suggest that the shooting in Fuengirola was planned from within Scotland.' Operation Portaledge is investigating a suspected gang feud that has been linked with a number of shootings, firebombings and assaults in the Glasgow and Edinburgh areas since March. So far more than 40 people have been arrested in connection with the incidents.
Sky News
4 days ago
- General
- Sky News
Two Scottish men shot dead by hooded gunman outside Irish pub in Costa del Sol
Two Scottish men have been shot dead by a hooded gunman outside an Irish pub in the Costa del Sol, according to reports in Spain. A spokesperson for the Spanish National Police told Sky News that two people had been killed but would not confirm further details on the victims. The force said an investigation was under way. The double shooting occurred outside Monaghans bar in Fuengirola on Saturday evening, which had been screening the UEFA Champions League final. Local authorities were quoted as saying that both victims were Scottish nationals. According to newspaper Sur in English, a hooded attacker got out of a car and opened fire. One of the men was reportedly shot point-blank in the chest, while the second victim was shot in the chest and abdomen while attempting to flee and later died at the scene. The newspaper added that the wife of one of the men reportedly escaped unscathed. The gunman then fled on foot. It is believed he met up with his accomplice and they continued to escape by car. The attack is one of several shootings to have taken place in the Costa del Sol region this year, according to reports in Spain. It also comes amid a gangland feud in Scotland, but Police Scotland said it had "nothing further to add at this time" whether the double shooting in Spain was linked to the criminal activities taking place on UK soil. The force instead directed Sky News towards the Spanish authorities. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said it had not been contacted for consular assistance in relation to the incident but would offer assistance if asked.
