Police ‘cannot win war on gangs’

A Top police officer has admitted that after a rise in deadly gangland feuds, the fight against organised crime cannot be won.

detective Chief Superintendent Gerry mclean said he hoped the growing violence was ‘not a new normal and I would hope it’s a spike’.

The admission comes after a spate of shootings and amid fears that police are losing control of the war on gangsters.

mr mclean, who is in charge of counterterrorism, also said ‘with a high degree of confidence’ that Scotland is not an Islamist target because of its success in integrating muslims into the community.

He drew a parallel between gang crime and terrorism as they are both about ‘young men and women at an early stage of their lives who make decisions about what path they are going to go down’.

The senior officer acknowledged that the sudden spate of gangland shootings in the Glasgow area had alarmed the public but he claimed police had ended this cycle of violence, at least for now.

However, he admitted: ‘I don’t think it’s a question of winning, it’s about making the public feel as safe as we possibly can.’

He claimed that as older members of the gangs passed away, more ‘up-and-coming criminals’ wanted to ‘create more of an image for themselves’.

An influx of semi-automatic weapons, particularly from eastern europe, has made it easier for gangsters to acquire firearms.