CRIME CLAN MOURN GANGLAND KINGPIN
Drug dealer carries dad’s coffin chained to jail guards
Notorious crime boss Jamie Daniel was laid to rest yesterday after a four-year battle with cancer.
More than 600 people – including many of his former underworld associates – packed Clydebank Crematorium on the outskirts of Glasgow to pay their last respects to the feared gangster.
Godfather Daniel, 58, the head of Scotland’s biggest and most powerful crime clan, died on Monday at his £ 400,000 home in the city’s upmarket Jordanhill after signing himself out of hospital where he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Among the mourners were his 26- year- old son Zander Sutherland who is serving a 13-and-a-half year term for heroin dealing.
He was allowed out of Addiewell Prison, West Lothian, under guard yesterday morning for the funeral.
As he helped carry his father’s coffin into the crematorium with family members, he was flanked by three G4S security guards who were chained to him throughout the funeral service.
As the coffin was taken into the crematorium, Elvis Presley’s classic hit In the Ghetto was played over the sound system.
Two uniformed officers stood guard as the prison van arrived first, followed by the funeral cortege carrying Daniel’s coffin.
There was also a police van positioned outside the crematorium on the main road and one at the back of the crematorium building.
Mourners were led by Daniel ’s 41-year-old wife Debbi Mortimer, his brothers Norman, David and Ronnie, son Francis “Fraggle” Green and daughter Kelly Green.
The 30-minute non-religious service was conducted by civil celebrant Barbara Ogilvie.
She made no reference to Daniel ’s criminal past but instead described him as a loving family man loyal to his friends who had fathered 10 children and had 10 grandchildren.
He was also described as a scrap metal dealer who enjoyed bungee jumping, hunting, jet skiing, playing pool and supporting Rangers.
Ogilvie said Daniel was a man who was always on the go, with a mobile phone in his ear.
She added: “He was someone who liked to be in control and was usually two steps ahead of everyone else. “Jamie also liked to win and always wanted people to be on time. “His family nickname was Taz as in the Tasmanian Devil. “Even the children called him that. “You either loved him or hated him. “But Jamie liked it that way.” Ogilvie also told a story about how Daniel hated to lose at pool even when playing withw friends and would often change the rules as he went along to suit himself. And if anyone complained he wouwould retort: “My table, my rules.” A number of giant f loral tributes, which variously said: “Dad”, “Uncle” and Granda, were placed next to the coffin before cremation. At the end of the service when a poem was read out, the packed crematorium broke out in applause. Following the cremation, the mourners headed to a funeral party at the Lorne Hotel in the west end of Glasgow.
Before he died, Jamie Daniel was the driving force of the family crime firm, with its roots in the Possilpark area of Glasgow.
In 1983, at the age of 25, he was jailed for four years in England for heroin smuggling.
Over the next 20 years, he forged alliances with some of London’s biggest crime families and Asian crooks with links to the Pakistan heroin markets.
The Daniels’ gangland dominance remained secret until January 2003 when the Sunday Mail’s Crime Inc investigation named them for the first time and laid bare their multi-millionpound rackets.
Over the following decade, they waged a tit-for-tat turf war with the Lyons family culminating in the murder in 2010 of Kevin “Gerbil” Carroll.
Daniel’s main business latterly was said to be cigarette smuggling, earning up to £1million a month from the trade.
He hated to lose at pool and, even playing with friends, he would change the rules to ensure his victory. If anyone complained, he would retort ‘My table, my rules’