The Brothers have a real stranglehold on the drugs trade. It would be hard to find one gram of cocaine here they haven’t made cash from
Siblings named as key players in international criminal operations
The Sunday Mail today names the fugitive brothers suspected of heading up Scotland’s biggest – and richest – organised crime gang.
James and Barry Gillespie are believed by detectives to have built a multi-million pound fortune from flooding the country with drugs and guns.
The pair are believed to be behind a massive criminal network that stretches from Scotland to South America and have been blamed for a string of violent attacks.
James, 45, and Barry, 41, are being hunted by police more than 12 months after nine members of their gang were locked up for 87 years.
The siblings – nicknamed The Brothers in criminal and law enforcement circles – moved to Portugal’s Algarve before vanishing.
They have been accused of ordering shootings, slashings and stabbings – including an attempt on the life of a junior football coach and a knife attack on a lawyer.
Police have now obtained European Arrest Warrants for the Gillespies and three of their alleged henchmen. The warrants were issued around six months ago.
A source said: “It would be hard to find a gram of cocaine in Scotland that the Gillespies haven’t made money from.
“Their hold on the supply chain in Scotland can’t be underestimated. They are not anywhere near the same level in terms of seriousness but they have a similar stranglehold to the so- called South American Narcos networks.
“Their drugs operation extends to heroin, cannabis and other substances.”
Police also want to apprehend Jordan Owen, 25, who is wanted in connection with the fatal shooting of Jamie Lee in Glasgow’s Castlemilk in 2017.
Owen has been accused of stabbing and shooting ex- Cambuslang Rangers manager Paul McColl in February 2018.
He is also a suspect in the slashing of criminal lawyer Joe Shields, attacked outside his office last July.
Sources say Owen has amassed a fortune from carrying out orders given to him by the Gillespies from their foreign bolthole. Detectives also want to trace 41-year-old James White, who is al leged to have arranged meetings between the Gillespies and their associates. He is believed to have links to Benidorm in Spain.
In addition, they are trying to locate Christopher Hughes, 30, who was with criminal Martin Kok when he was shot dead in the Dutch town of Laren in 2016.
It is believed Hughes was in the Netherlands to discuss a deal involving encrypted mobile phones. The Brothers were based in the Algarve for about a decade but police admit they now don’t know where they are. It is believed they have fled Europe and initially relocated in Brazil, where they kept in touch with their family and associates using encrypted mobiles.
All five men are wanted by detectives working on Operation Escalade – a clampdown on Scotland’s organised crime clans.
Detective Superintendent Stephen Grant said: “Operation Escalade is an ongoing investigation into one of the country’s top- tier serious organised crime groups.
“We’re appealing to the public to come forward with any information they may have regarding the whereabouts of these named individuals who are wanted in
connection with a number of serious offences. Anyone with information is asked to contact Police Scotland via 101 or anonymously through Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.”
The Gillespies, originally from Rutherglen, near Glasgow, cal l themselves property developers.
Sources say they worked for drug dealer Stephen Docherty before he fell to his death from a building in the mid-90s. They are thought to have taken over his operations before leaving Scotland.
We can reveal that nine men jailed for 87 years in January 2018 for drug and gun crimes were accused by prosecutors of carrying out the Gillespies’ instructions. The siblings were named on the indictment as orchestrators of the offences but did not face charges.
David Sel l, 51, Barry O’Neil l, 38, Anthony Woods, 45, Francis Mulligan, 42, Michael Bowman, 31, Mark Richardson, 31, Gerard Docherty, 43, Steven McArdle, 35, and Martyn Fitzsimmons, 38, were convicted after admitting a string of serious charges at the High Court in Glasgow.
Lawyer Shields represented Sell in the trial. He was attacked as he walked back to his office from Glasgow Sheriff Court.
Notorious cocaine baron Richardson is alleged to have been The Brothers’ main outlet for drug distribution in Scotland before he was jailed for more than eight years for gun offences.
Fitzsimmons was jailed for 10 years for having a Glock handgun, ammo and stashing £ 36,000 of dirty money.
Police discovered an array of weapons hidden in lock-ups during a series of raids in Glasgow and Lanarkshire.
Officers found 11 guns, including Glock pistols, a Heckler and Koch sub-machine gun and a M75 hand grenade.
They also recovered £1.6million – money bel ieved to be paid to the Gillespies’ network each week. The gang
used sophisticatedd anti- surveillance ll devices to avoid detection.
The Brothers were also implicated in the murder of drug dealer Martin Toner in 2004.
Toner, 34, from Pollokshields, Glasgow, was found dead in a field near Langbank, Renfrewshire.
He had been stabbed and his throat cut, and had been due to stand trial at the High Court for drugs offences.
Two men, including former policeman Douglas Fleming, stood trial for his murder in 2015 but were cleared.
Toner’s wife Michelle told the court she believed James and Barry Gillespie may have had something to with her husband’s death.
The court heard that in 2002, one of the Gillespies had gone to Toner’s house and tried to shoot him but the gun jammed.
Michelle did not identify which brother launched the attack but claims he then tried to stab her husband.
Toner, a martial arts experts, was able to disarm the brother and stab his attacker in the neck.
Last June, more than £2million worth of heroin, cocaine and f ive Glock handguns were seized as part of a crackdown on organised crime.
Detectives hailed the haul – which has also been linked to the Gillespies – as a major blow to their empire.
A source said: “The Gillespie brothers have been at the top of the tree in organised crime in Scotland for years.
“They have been the main distributors of cocaine in this country for more than a decade and have links to just about every other criminal gang in operation.
“There has been a high volume of violent attacks and seizures of guns, drugs and money linked to them.”