VERY ORGANISED CRIME
SCOTLAND’S most sophisticated crime gang imported a million wraps of cocaine a year before being snared by a massive police operation.
The gun-toting syndicate used highend counter surveillance equipment imported from America to block police radio and mobile phone signals.
They transported drugs, cash and firearms around the country in a fleet of cars registered in fake names, with modified chassis to include secret locked compartments.
It allowed them to ply their trade for years – flooding Scotland’s streets with cocaine while raking in up to £2million a week.
But nine members of the gang lost their high-stakes game of cat and mouse with the authorities last week when they pled guilty to a catalogue of offences.
Detectives seized £1.6million in cash during their investigation.
The gang are thought to have been smuggling a ton of cocaine a year – enough for a million one-gram wraps at £50 a time.
And while the godfathers at the top of the tree remain at large, prosecutors are understood to have further targets in their crosshairs.
The gang are understood to have been operating between 2013 and 2017, with access to an unprecedented level of equipment.
High-end counter-surveillance devices worth up to £25,000 apiece had been bought in from America to thwart police attempts to detect them.
One machine could jam mobile phone signals, 3G, 4G and wifi within a 100-metre radius of where the gang were operating.
Another headphones and wand device straight out of a James Bond film could be used to sweep for any bugs and listening devices placed in a room.
A fleet of vehicles – all registered and insured for fictitious drivers – were kept hidden in garages around the country.
Many were professionally modified to include lockers for guns, cash and drugs. Some of the vehicles are believed to have been left fuelled and ready for use at strategic locations.
A police source said: “This was the most sophisticated crime group operating across Scotland – and not only Scotland. They were at an international level. They were involved in trafficking of narcotics – one ton§ a year into the UK, with the significant bulk coming to Scotland.
“They were also involved in significant movement of firearms and the significant movement of criminal cash back to the crime group who were benefiting from this.
“The inquiry was unique in that this group had a skill set that was on a par with the police deployed against them.
“The level of counter-surveillance that was deployed was at a significant level to thwart the police activity that was going on in relation to them.” The gang were snared after several separate police probes were brought together under one umbrella investigation.
Operation Draken had been investigating the abduction of Robert Allan in March 2015, while Operation Penbridge had been looking into an attempt to murder Robert Kelbie in September last year.
Operation Textural was looking at an attempt to kill Ross Monaghan outside a primary school in Glasgow’s Penilee in January this year.
Once it became apparent that all the incidents were connected, the decision was made for them all to be taken under the umbrella of Operation Escalade, an overarching probe into organised crime.
Violent maniac David Sell was involved with others in the brutal abduction and torture of Allan in March 2015 – and it was through this investigation that police started to find links to other incidents.
A set of keys marked “Annie” was discovered at one of the locations where Allan was tortured.
They turned out to be for a Honda CR-V stored in a lock-up garage in Anniesland, Glasgow. In the car, police found a terrifying arsenal of 11 guns, including a Scorpion machine gun, Glock pistols and a Beretta 9000 gun.
A hand grenade and a selection of silencers were also discovered.
Some of the guns were modified with equipment to collect shell casings so as not to leave evidence.
DNA on the Beretta linked the gun to Allen, who had been pistol-whipped with it during his torture.
A total of 11 properties were raided as part of Operation Escalade. which turned up an astonishing £1.6million in spare cash that the gang had stashed at various locations.