Scotland is braced for a wave of revenge attacks after two gangland kingpins were gunned down in a planned assassination on the Costa del Sol.
Ross Monaghan and Eddie Lyons Jnr – senior figures from the feared Lyons clan – were shot dead by a masked gunman as they were watching Saturday’s Champions League final at Monaghans Irish pub in Fuengirola.
After executing Lyons Jnr, 46, on the street outside, the killer ran in and cornered Monaghan, 43, before shooting him in the chest and stomach at close range.
Monaghan – who is believed to have owned the pub – tried to escape by running to the bathroom. But horrific CCTV shows him stumbling as he turns to face his killer, who calmly pulls the trigger four times.
The assassinations are feared to be the latest chapter in a bloody feud between the Lyons crime family and their bitter rivals, the Daniels, which has torn Glasgow apart for more than two decades.
They also come amid a vicious gang war that has seen a wave of firebombings terrorise communities in both Edinburgh and Glasgow.
While the details are murky, the recent attacks in Scotland are said to be targeting the criminal empire of cocaine trafficker Mark Richardson and his close associate Steven ‘Bonzo’ Daniel – both allies of the Daniels family.
Reports suggest the feud erupted after Richardson’s associates stole a £500,000 stash of cocaine from an ambitious Dubai-based kingpin known as Ross ‘Miami’ McGill. The Lyons are now said to be supporting McGill in his war on Richardson.
McGill is a former Rangers ultra who once headed up the Union Bears, the club’s most hardcore group of fans. He was even given a send-off by then-manager Steven Gerrard when he gave up the leadership role in 2021.
Reports suggest that McGill has been directing attacks in Scotland after sensing an opportunity to assert his dominance following the jailing of many of his rivals.
Ross Monaghan (left) and Eddie Lyons Jnr were shot dead by a masked gunman while they were watching Saturday’s Champions League final at Monaghans Irish pub in Fuengirola
Saturday’s shooting took place in front of terrified locals and tourists
The shootings come amid a vicious gang war that has seen a wave of firebombings terrorise communities in both Edinburgh and Glasgow
Many of these prosecutions followed the successful decryption of EncroChat, an encrypted messaging platform used by organised crime bosses.
‘When EncroChat was cracked, many senior members of organised crime were detained in prisons up and down the country,’ Graeme Pearson, former director of the Scottish Crime and Drug Agency, told The Sun.
‘The next generation of would-be gangsters stepped into that void and decided that they were going to be the top kids going forward.
‘It left something of a vacuum at a top level for somebody like McGill to step into the frame.’
There have been dozens of violent incidents in Edinburgh and Glasgow linked to the recent gang feud, which has been underway for months.
The war has even made its way onto social media, where one video showed a series of attacks on targets associated with Richardson to the tune of Martha Reeves’ and the Vandellas hit ‘Nowhere to run’.
Numerous reports have suggested the Costa del Sol shootings are directly linked to the ongoing unrest in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
But this has been denied by police, who said there is ‘no intelligence to suggest’ this was the case.
While the details are murky, the recent attacks in Scotland are said to be targeting the criminal empire of cocaine trafficker Mark Richardson and his close associate Steven ‘Bonzo’ Daniel – both allies of the Daniels family
Reports suggest the feud erupted after Richardson’s associates stole a £500,000 stash of cocaine from an ambitious Dubai-based kingpin known as Ross ‘Miami’ McGill (pictured)
McGill is a former Rangers ultra who once headed up the Union Bears, the club’s most hardcore group of fans. He was even given a send-off by then-manager Steven Gerrard when he gave up the leadership role in 2021
Numerous threats have been made against the Daniels and Richardsons on social media
Messages from Mr Big’s enforces Tamo Junto said the Daniels and Richardsons should ‘leave Scotland immediately’
A Police Scotland spokesperson added: ‘Police Scotland is supporting Spanish police where requested, however, at this time we have no officers deployed within Spain.
‘There is currently no intelligence to suggest the deaths of these two men in Spain are linked to the recent criminal attacks in Scotland being investigated as part of Operation Portaledge.
‘Any misinformation or speculation linking the events in Spain are not helpful to the ongoing investigations in either country.
‘There is also nothing to suggest that the shooting in Fuengirola was planned from within Scotland.’
If the feud between the Lyons and Daniels is a factor behind the killings of Monaghan and Lyons Jnr, it will be the latest bloody incident in a long-running saga.
The Lyons, from the Milton housing scheme in North Glasgow, sparked the original war after allegedly stealing a £20,000 cocaine stash belonging to the Daniels, from nearby Possil, during a party.
Five years later, gunmen James McDonald and Raymond Anderson walked into Applerow Motors in Lambhill, north Glasgow – owned by David Lyons – and opened fire in retaliation.
Monaghan himself was a suspect in the 2010 murder of Daniels member Kevin ‘Gerbil’ Carroll outside an Asda in Robroyston, Glasgow. He was charged but the case was later dropped
Carroll was gunned down in front of horrified lunchtime shoppers in the car park of Asda, Robroyston, in January 2010
David’s nephew Michael Lyons, 21, was killed, while Steven Lyons – Eddie Jnr’s brother – was shot in the leg and back. Robert Pickett was left in a coma and lost a kidney.
Scores of tit for tat shootings and killings have happened in the years since.
Monaghan himself was a suspect in the 2010 murder of Daniels member Kevin ‘Gerbil’ Carroll in the car park of a Glasgow Asda. He was charged over the shooting but the case was later dropped.
In August 2017, Monaghan and Lyons Jr were cleared of being involved in a brutal street attack on three men outside the Campsie bar in Bishopbriggs, East Dunbartonshire.
Monaghan later fled to Spain after being shot in the shoulder while dropping his child off at a Glasgow primary school that same year.
Monaghans, the pub where Saturday’s shooting happened, describes itself online as a place ‘where you can relax and spend the day enjoying great home cooked meals on a sunny terrace and watch live sporting events.’
It also bills itself as a ‘family friendly sports bar and restaurant located in Torreblanca, Fuengirola opposite one of the area’s most popular beaches.’
Torreblanca is to the east of Fuengirola town centre and a stone’s throw from an area called Los Boliches.
Monaghans is located on the seafront and is a popular bar with tourists and expats
Video broadcast on Spanish TV shows the gunman(centre) storm through the bar and take aim at Monaghan
The assassin (left) marches into Monaghans as a bystander (right) tries desperately to flee
Saturday night’s gun murders follow the fatal shooting nearly six weeks ago of a 32-year-old British man in nearby Calahonda a 15-minute drive from the Irish bar towards Marbella.
He was shot dead around 8pm on April 21 in a professional hit as he headed back to his car after finishing a football match with friends.
The killers fled in a getaway car that was later torched. Police are investigating the brutal assassination as a drug-related gang shooting but have yet to make any arrests.
The victim has not been named but was known to come from Liverpool.
Reports at the time described the incident as the fourth shooting so far that month on the Costa del Sol, where rival gangs have increasingly used extreme violence to settle scores and a number of international mafias are known to have a base.
Four days before the Calahonda shooting a 34-year-old man was rushed to the Costa del Sol Hospital in Marbella after being shot outside a nightclub in the famous Costa del Sol resort.
