The man who first exposed the murderous Lyons and Daniel feud says it will never end – despite claims of a ceasefire in the gangland violence that has plagued Scotland in the last 16 months. Billy McAllister cannot see the two crime families ever getting round the table and settling their differences.
The former Glasgow City councillor added: “This is personalised. You have more chance with the Pope and the Grandmaster of the Orange Lodge in Scotland.”
The Lyons and Daniel feud was reignited last year following a fallout between Ross McGill, the former head of Rangers fans group the Union Bears, and convicted Edinburgh drug baron Mark Richardson, who is currently in prison. McGill has strong links to the Lyons crime clan and Richardson to the Daniel family.
Police Scotland Chief Constable Jo Farrell has reported that rival sides have resolved their differences following a series of fire and machete attacks that resulted in 64 arrests. However while McGill and Richardson may have made peace the Lyons and Daniel feud shows no sign of abating.
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Billy added: “That will never stop as long as there is any of them left. Trust me when I say this, that will never end.
“With the Lyons and Daniel’s it’s not about the overall bigger picture. It is just a personal thing with them. Tit for Tat over the decades.”
Billy then added: “I know how much they hate each other. That is the difference between Richardson and McGill. It’s business. That’s how they work.
“It’s not about business with the Lyons and Daniel’s it is a personal feud. I do know them. When I was younger growing up, that was their mentality. We’ll show you.
“That feud will not end because McGill or Richardson are making pacts. That’s why it has grown to the extent that it has grown with all the fatalities and murders.”
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In 2006, Lyons family member, Michael Lyons, was shot dead in a Glasgow MOT station by two associates of the rival Daniel family who were both jailed for life in 2008. In 2010 Daniel enforcer Kevin “Gerbil” Carroll was shot dead outside an Asda supermarket in Robroyston, Glasgow.
An associate of the Lyons family was convicted of his murder in 2015. In May last year, two senior members of the Lyons crime group Eddie Lyons Jnr and his associate Ross Monaghan were both shot dead in a beachfront bar in Fuengirola in the south of Spain.
Michael Riley, 44, from Liverpool, was later extradited to Spain to stand trial over the shootings. The feud between the two families dates back to an incident in Glasgow in 2001 when a Lyons gang member is alleged to have stolen cocaine stash belonging to the Daniels.
However Billy believes the feud goes back even further. He added: “That was a step too far. That was the blue touch paper but it was going on before that.”
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Billy revealed that attempts were made by the police at the time to resolve the growing dispute before it escalated into the mayhem and murder of the last 25 years. He added: “The police tried to quash it many years ago.
“They were told then, no. It continued and it just grew and grew.”
Billy also believes that the murders of Eddie Lyons Jr and Ross. Monaghan have not yet been properly avenged making the chances of an end to the feud even less likely.
He also thinks the feud has been passed through the generations and could even be passed to the next one. Billy added: “That is the mentality of them. They take their kids into it as well, rather than try to educate them.
“It will outlive me anyway. That’s a fact.”
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Police Scotland launched Operation Portaledge in March last year to combat a spate of firebombings and machete attacks which began in Edinburgh then spread to Glasgow and which were linked to McGill. He is said to have been angered when a £500,000 consignment of cocaine was allegedly paid for with fake money by a Richardson associate.
A report from Ms Farrell to oversight body the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) revealed how the force investigated more than 84 incidents of violence and disorder, arrested 64 people and enforced 55 search and arrest warrants. Many of the attacks been linked to a shadowy group, allegedly orchestrated by McGill, called Tamo Junto.
In her SPA report Ms Farrell said Operation Portaledge had led to a “downturn” in the violence. She added: “The cause of that downturn was without question multi-factorial including the resolution of differences within the Serious And Organised Crime community.”
One man was jailed for eight years and four months after admitting carrying out a machete attack on an Edinburgh businessman linked to Richardson. Four men were jailed for a total of 25 years over a series of fire-raising attacks in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
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Steven Lyons, the head of the Lyons crime group, was arrested in Bali in March, deported to the Netherlands and extradited to Spain last month on drug trafficking and money laundering charges. McGill was arrested in Dubai last September and ordered to leave. However his current whereabouts are unknown.
The end of the violence fo the last 16 months has been linked to a shortage of heroin and cocaine forcing rival factions to work together. In 2000 Billy exposed the Lyons family involvement in the running of the council-funded Chirnsyde Community Initiative in Milton, Glasgow.
It’s estimated the centre received more than £1.4million in public funds. Over the years, Billy and other activists were threatened and attacked over their opposition to the Lyons, with Billy’s car being firebombed.
As a result of the fatal MOT shooting in 2006, Glasgow City Council finally shut down Chirnsyde and evicted members of the Lyons family a few days later.
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