UNMASKED Jammer in slammer
Norman Silvester This is the first picture of one of the brains behind Scotland’s biggest and most sophisticated crime gang.
Anthony Woods was part of a nine-man crew jailed for 87 years ear l ier this year for thei r involvement in drugs, firearms and dirty money.
Woods – described in court as the mob’s electronics expert – can be pictured for the first time after serious assault charges against him were dropped.
He and two other gang members – Francis Mulligan, 41, and Michael Bowman, 30 – were responsible for creating secret hiding spaces in premises and vehicles to stash weapons, drugs and cash.
The trio supplied encrypted mobile phones and false identities to gang members – including fake facial hair and wigs for disguises. They also organised counter surveillance and anti- surveillance tactics against the pol ice and gang rivals, including specialist signal jammers.
Woods had been facing separate charges of choking and slashing a man i n Cast lemi lk, Glasgow, in June 2016. The gangster was also charged with trying to set fire to a car in a bid to destroy evidence on the same day.
The case was initially due to go to trial in April at Glasgow Sheriff Court. But the charges have since been dropped.
A Crown Office spokesman said: “After careful consideration of the facts and circumstances of the case, including the available admi s s ible e v idence , the procurator fiscal decided there should be no proceedings taken at this time.”
Woods, f rom Cambusl ang, near Glasgow, was jailed at the High Court in Glasgow in Januar y for 11 years and one month after admit t i ng hi s role in ser ious organised crime.
In one g r i s ly episode, the gang abducted a man who owed them money. They beat him with a chain, metal bar and sledgehammer before shooting him three times in the legs and dumping near a busy roundabout in East Kilbride.
Prosecutor Alex Prentice QC said they were the most sophisticated gang encountered by police.
He added: “They are at the top of the chain in terms of drugs transactions in Scotland and the UK as a whole.
“The firepower at the disposal of this crime group is unprecedented in terms of the history of organised crime in Scotland.”
Last month, Woods had his sentence cut by 28 months on appeal.
In June, Woods was given an extra four months jail time after he was caught with a mobile phone in his cell at Barlinnie Prison in Glasgow.
The other six gang members were David Sell, 50, Barry O’Neill, 37, Gerard Docherty, 42, Mark Richardson, 30, Steven McArdle, 33, and war veteran Martyn Fitzsimmons, 37.
Sell got the biggest jail term of the nine, 15 years and eight months.
Chief Superintendent Gerry McLean, head of Organised Crime and Counter Terrorism, said: “Woods was one of nine men who were responsible for bringing fear and misery to communities across Scotland and we welcome the fact they admitted their involvement in the face of a wealth of evidence.”