Crime gangs in Glasgow

HOW hard are Glasgow’s crime gangs? For generations some in Scotland’s biggest city have had a kind of perverse pride in its hardman reputation. This, after all, is a community that tabloids have long, wrongly, branded as “Europe’s murder capital”. And, with a multi-million-pound market for drugs and prostitution alone, it certainly has a vibrant network of organised criminals. The most recent routine snapshot by police found Glasgow had 48 active underworld groups employing around 800 people.

But how violent are they, by international gangland standards? Not very. And how many people do they kill? Not many.

The killing of Kevin ‘Gerbil’ Carroll had all the hallmarks of a criminal hit. His death was shocking, but it was shocking because it was an unusual event, not a common one. There are no official statistics for the number of gangland killings in Scotland. But there are robust numbers that strongly suggest the figures are low. The Scottish Government, until last year, counted contract killings, which, of course, are not necessarily Mob-related. There were four in the decade from 2003-04 to 2012-13. The Government also counts fatal shootings, including homicides.

Carroll was one of just two homicide victims who died as a result of gunshot wounds in 2009-10.

Police insiders stress that gangs in Glasgow and elsewhere do need a regular supply of muscle, of violent men like Carroll. But the success of Scottish gangsters is often in avoiding violence, rather than using it.