Two Scottish gangland figures with links to the Kinahans arrested in Middle East
Two major Scottish gangland figures with links to the Kinahans have been arrested in the Middle East.Just days before Iran launched airstrikes in response to Donald Trump’s deadly bombardment, Ross ‘Miami’ McGill and Steven Lyons were reportedly picked up in Qatar.Both criminals who have been engaged in a deadly feud partly fuelled by the Irish cartel were arrested “in a double desert swoop” according to the Scottish Sun.Last September, Glasgow mob boss Lyons (45) and former Rangers Ultras leader McGill (31) of East Kilbride, as well as Steven Larwood (42) were arrested in Dubai as Scotland’s gang wars raged at home.Read moreVideo shows horror firebomb attack in Scottish feud linked to Kinahan cartelThey were later released and were reported to be moving around the region seeking a new bolthole but have now been stopped in Qutar where they are being held.According to a source quoted by the Sun, Lyons was in Bahrain for a while but was forced to leave there too and ended up in Qatar with McGill.“They still have family and loved ones based in Dubai because they have built strong ties there,” this source said.“But for the last few months McGill and Lyons have been forced to keep moving.The scene at Monaghan’s pub in Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol where Eddie Lyons Jnr and Ross Monaghan were gunned down “Now they have ended up getting arrested in Qatar but it’s unclear if they will be extradited or just booted out of the country in the same way they were kicked out of Dubai last year.”Both men are involved in a current wave of violence sparked almost exactly a year ago, when Logan Carlin (25), described in court as a “useful idiot” launched a firebomb attack on a beauty salon in Edinburgh on March 6.It was the start of a revenge campaign on associates of caged Edinburgh mob boss Mark Richardson (38).Richardson’s gang had been blamed for ripping off former Union Bears chief McGill in a £500,000 cocaine deal by using fake cash.A wave of attacks followed and later spread to Glasgow where members of the Lyons’ bitter enemies in the Daniel crime family were targeted.In May, Steven’s brother Eddie Lyons Jnr (46) and Ross Monaghan (43) were gunned down in a double assassination at an Irish bar in Fuengirola, Spain.The pair are understood to have been high ranking names in the Glasgow-based Lyons gang, which has been locked in a bitter feud with the Daniels organised crime group for over two decades.Suspected hitman Michael Riley (44) of Huyton, Liverpool, was later arrested and extradited from the UK to face trial over the murders.McGill is said to have orchestrated a series of attacks on members of the Daniel crime family and their associates in both Edinburgh and Glasgow last year using a shadowy group called Tamo Junto (TMJ).The campaign of violence has seen homes and commercial properties set on fire in both cities and individuals being injured by masked thugs armed with machetes.McGill is said to have ordered the attacks after accusing a man linked to Edinburgh crime boss and Daniel associate Mark Richardson of paying for a £500,000 consignment of cocaine with fake bank notes.Police Scotland, meanwhile, has so far arrested 63 people in connection with the force’s ongoing Portaledge operation which was launched in a bid to halt the violence.The arrests of Lyons and McGill in the Middle East are both said to be part of the same Portaledge probe.In September Steven Lyons, Ross McGill, Stephen Jamieson and Steven Larwood, were all taken into custody by Dubai police as part of the large-scale investigation.Jamieson has since been extradited to Scotland where he faces a total of six charges, including directing someone to commit a serious offence.We had earlier reported how Lyons, a key Kinahan Cartel ally, and Ross ‘Miami’ McGill were arrested in an operation “they never saw coming.”Jailed gang boss Mark Richardson The Lyons crime gang have strong ties with the Kinahan Cartel forged on Spain’s Costa Del Sol in the 2010s.Sources have previously told the Daily Record how the cartel is linked to the attacks on the empire of jailed kingpin Richardson, via their Scottish associates, including the head of the Lyons crime family, Steven LyonsThe 47-year-old reportedly attended Daniel Kinahan’s lavish Burj-al Arab Hotel wedding in 2021.Read moreMajor gangland criminal with links to Kinahan cartel deported from DubaiThe Kinahans are also linked to Jamieson, who was a close friend of James ‘Iceman’ Stevenson who admitted his role in smuggling £100m (€122m) of cocaine to the UK.The so-called ‘Tamo Junto’ gang was formed in early 2025 by McGill, a former leader of the Rangers Union Bears with the express orders to carry out violent reprisals against members and associates of the Glasgow-based Daniel family.Jailed cocaine kingpin Richardson has also been targeted behind bars by the TMJ who issued a bounty, and offered a reward for a violent attack on the jailed Scottish drug lord
Comments (0)