Kinahan cartel ’fueling’ gangland war in Scotland’s underworld

The Kinahan cartel are fuelling a gangland war in Scotland’s underworld, according to reports.

It comes following a slew of firebombs and shootings in Edinburgh targeting the empire of jailed kingpin Mark Richardson.

Sources told the Daily Record newspaper that the Kinahan cartel are linked to the attacks via their Scottish associates, including head of the Lyons crime family, Steven Lyons.

The 47-year-old, who lives in the United Arab Emirates, reportedly attended Daniel Kinahan’s lavish Burj-al Arab Hotel wedding in 2021. Kinahan and Lyons fell out in summer of 2001 when a large stash of Kinahan cocaine was stolen from a house in the Milton area of Glasgow and sold to the Lyons

The Kinahans are also linked to Stevie Jamieson, a Scottish gangster who was a close friend of James ‘Iceman’ Stevenson.

‘The Iceman’ admitted his role in smuggling £100m (€122m) of cocaine to the UK from Ecuador in a banana shipment after the haul was intercepted by authorities in Dover in 2020.

Now the Scots are leveraging their association with the cartel to take over the drugs market in Edinburgh.

“It has long been a wish of the Lyons family to get their slice of Edinburgh,” the source said.

“Having his good pal, Stevie Jamieson over in Dubai puts him in a position where he can use that Kinahan connection as a lever.”

“Don’t get me wrong. The Kinahans are not putting boots on the ground over here. Far from it.

“It is the simple fact that Richardson knows that the person behind these attacks has a direct line to them will really have hit a chord.”

The source added: “Don’t forget, the Kinahans have well-established links to some of the most dangerous people in the world. The Mexicans, the Albanians, the Dutch-Moroccans.

“They are used to fighting of a much-bigger, far more dangerous scale than Richardson and his ilk have ever known.”

The source said that these connections were “a classic example of illustrating how organised crime is just like any other business.”

“The bottom line is simply ‘it is all about who you know.’

“You may think you are a big player but there is always someone bigger than you and when it comes to individuals like the Kinahans, you are entering a completely different league.”

“This could be described as a criminal ‘perfect storm’. The stars have aligned and it is bad news for Richardson. In all senses, Edinburgh is a ticking time bomb.”

Last month it was reported that Lyons, who is in debt to the Kinahans, was growing ever paranoid about his inner circle and made his cronies take lie detector tests.

The 44-year-old has hired a lie detection expert to conduct polygraph tests on gang members after a house linked to the Glasgow mobster was robbed of drugs worth £500,000.

Sources told The Sun Lyons is “on edge” over a series of thefts and police busts that have left him racking up debts with the notorious Irish cartel.

In the wake of a series drugs raids, Lyons has forced them to take lie detectors tests In a bid to weed out traitors.

The Lyons stash house was robbed of £500,000 of drugs in November just weeks after cops reportedly seized millions of pounds of drugs in Glasgow.

Six masked men had forced their way into the property in Moodiesburn, Lanarkshire, before making off with a huge cannabis haul.

In May 2022, Scottish MP Russell Findlay described how the Kinahan crime cartel, that had just been sanctioned by the US Government, was working in partnership with the feared Glasgow-based Lyons gang.

The former crime journalist revealed how the Kinahans were described as almost a "Scottish-Irish mob" as the connections were so strong between them.

"I don’t know how it happened but as the Costa Del Sol is a bit of a criminals’ playground, the Lyons formed an alliance with the Kinahans,” he said at the time.

"They had this Kinahan backing, if you like, but they also had the drugs importation on a vast scale. It’s all very well controlling the streets but half the problem is getting regular, safe consistent supplies in.

"So, it was quid pro quo in that the Lyons could give them access to Scotland right across the central belt from Glasgow to Edinburgh."

In October 2022, senior crime buster Gerry McLean, claimed that dismantling the Kinahan cartel from the top would help reduce gangland activity in Scotland.

McLean, Regional Head of Investigations at the National Crime Agency, said that focusing on the Irish mob’s leading figures would have a “much greater impact” than targeting smaller groups associated with the Kinahans.

“We’re trying to disrupt that at a very high end so it limits the ability of organised crime groups on the ground to criminally benefit,” he said.

“There are some things that we are doing here in Scotland.

“But if we pitch it at that higher end, it can have a much greater impact than trying to deal with every crime group that benefits from the Kinahan cartel and its distribution networks.”