Paul O’HareBBC Scotland News
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Steven Lyons (left) and Ross McGill were arrested in Dubai earlier this month
The arrests of four major Scottish crime figures in Dubai remain shrouded in mystery more than 10 days after they were taken into custody.
Steven Lyons, Ross McGill, Stephen Jamieson and Steven Larwood have been held in the United Arab Emirates since 16 September.
Police Scotland believe all four are linked to criminality, ranging from drug importation to a fresh wave of gangland violence across the central belt.
The Gulf raids are the latest development in a bloody feud between the Lyons and the Daniel families which has raged for 25 years.
Both gangs are now on their second generation of leaders.
The Lyons crime group is currently headed by Steven Lyons, one of the Dubai four.
It rose to prominence under the leadership of his father Eddie, of Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire.
Jamie Daniel – who became a millionaire after starting out as a scrap metal dealer in Glasgow’s Possil – founded and led the crime clan bearing his name.
When he died from cancer in July 2016 there was no obvious successor but the power vacuum he left behind was eventually filled by his nephew, Steven “Bonzo” Daniel.
The bitter rivalry between the two families is said to date back to the theft of a £20,000 stash of cocaine from a Daniel safe house in the north of Glasgow in 2001.
But in December 2006 it became headline news when Michael Lyons, 21, was shot dead after two masked gunmen walked into his uncle’s MoT garage.
Police Scotland
The murder of Michael Lyons in 2006 took the feud to another level
Steven Lyons and an associate, Robert Pickett, were injured in the ambush, which was later described in court as “like a scene out of The Godfather”.
In May 2008, Daniel gang members Raymond Anderson and James McDonald were convicted of the attack and each sentenced to 35 years in jail, which was later reduced on appeal.
A series of tit-for-tat attacks followed, ranging from shootings to kidnappings, but it would be January 2010 before the feud claimed a second victim.
Daniel clan enforcer Kevin “Gerbil” Carroll had arranged to meet drug dealer Stephen Glen outside an Asda store in Glasgow’s Robroyston.
Glen later recalled being told: “You’re working for me now, anybody that doesn’t fall in line is going to get banged.”
PA Media
Kevin Carroll was fatally shot in the head and chest in a supermarket car park attack that lasted 25 seconds
Minutes later Carroll, 29, was sitting in the back seat of an Audi A3 in the car park when a Volkswagen Golf screeched to a halt.
As lunchtime shoppers looked on, two gunmen got out and shot Carroll 13 times.
I was the Daily Record’s crime reporter at the time and was sent to a retail park frozen in time. As darkness fell, the first vehicles were eventually allowed to leave the massive police cordon.
But, understandably, no-one stopped to speak about the most public gangland hit ever carried out in Scotland.
Police Scotland
Kevin “Gerbil” Carroll was a feared gangland enforcer for the Daniel crime clan
Carroll’s significance was later highlighted in court when it emerged detectives investigating the shooting had compiled a list of 99 potential suspects.
In May 2015, William “Buff” Paterson, who fled to Spain after the killing, was convicted of murder and told he must serve a minimum of 22 years in jail.
Judge Lord Armstrong told him: “It was not a spontaneous event which happened on the spur of the moment, it was in effect an execution.”
Jamie Daniel’s death, at the age of 58, was the catalyst for the third significant chapter in the story.
It sparked a savage campaign of violence against his associates.
Spindrift
Steven “Bonzo” Daniel was subjected to a savage assault after a car chase through Glasgow
The victims included his successor, Steven “Bonzo” Daniel, who was left with horrific facial injuries after a high-speed car chase through Glasgow in May 2017.
A court later heard a graphic account of how he was attacked with bladed weapons after he crashed his Skoda Octavia – which had been fitted with a tracking device – and passed out behind the wheel.
Two years later, six associates of the Lyons family were jailed after being found guilty of five murder plots.
Lord Mulholland told them: “You sought to turn Glasgow into a war zone for your feud.”
CCTV captured the car chase which ended with the attack on Steven “Bonzo” Daniel
The Dubai arre
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