The double murder of two Scottish men in Fuengirola, Spain, may have brought a bloody conclusion to a 25-year gangland feud between Glasgow's Lyons and Daniels families, but the crimes have not disappeared. Police Scotland has noted a "clear and obvious downturn" in violence, attributing it to a multi-factorial resolution within the serious and organised crime community.
The Fuengirola Assassination
On the evening of 31 May 2025, as patrons of Monaghans seafront bar in Fuengirola watched the Champions League final, a masked gunman emerged from a car and shot 46-year-old Eddie Lyons Jr at point-blank range. The gunman then turned on the bar's owner, Ross Monaghan, 43, but his gun jammed. CCTV captured Monaghan fleeing inside, pursued by the shooter, who shot him three times as he crawled on the floor. The attacker fled the scene and allegedly the country.
This brazen public double murder marked the apex of a violent feud that has claimed dozens of lives and shaped Scotland's criminal underworld for over two decades.
Police Report Downturn in Violence
In a recent update to the Scottish Police Authority, Police Scotland reported a "clear and obvious downturn of activity" following a particularly violent six-month period of attacks and firebombings across Scotland. The force noted the downturn was "multi-factorial, including the resolution of differences within the serious and organised crime community."
Karyn McCluskey, pioneer of Scotland's Violence Reduction Unit, suggested that the gangs may have changed tactics in response to police pressure. "If you're a good organised crime group, you don't commit violence, because that's just what brings the police down on you," she said.
Police Scotland arrested 64 people in less than a year following 84 incidents of violence, recovering seven firearms and other weapons. More than 90 safeguarding plans were implemented to protect vulnerable individuals caught up in the feud.
EncroChat Breach Cripples Organised Crime
A significant boost for police came from the infiltration of EncroChat, an encrypted communication service used by criminals globally, between March and June 2020. Officers in 13 European countries accessed real-time communications, allowing them to monitor drug orders, weapon deals, and assassination plots. As of 2023, the hack led to 6,558 arrests worldwide, including over 3,000 in the UK, with defendants still appearing in court based on this evidence.
Origins of the Feud
The feud traces back to 2001 when a £20,000 stash of drugs belonging to the Daniel clan was stolen by associates of the Lyons family, allegedly involving a teenage Ross Monaghan and Eddie Lyons Jr. This theft enraged Jamie Daniel, the Daniels' patriarch, a scrap-metal dealer turned heroin dealer who built a criminal empire. He was known as untouchable, linked to beatings and the unsolved sniper murder of a rival dealer.
Kevin "Gerbil" Carroll, Jamie Daniel's son-in-law and chief enforcer, escalated tensions with his volatile behaviour and notorious "alien abduction" torture routine. In 2006, he desecrated the grave of Eddie Lyons Sr's eight-year-old son, crossing a line that led to a daylight ambush killing 21-year-old Michael Lyons. A judge described the attack as a "cold-blooded, premeditated execution," handing out the longest jail terms in Scottish legal history—32 and 35 years.
Steven Lyons, Eddie Sr's son, fled to Spain and later Dubai, running the family business from abroad.
The Gerbil Murder and Its Aftermath
In January 2010, Gerbil was shot 13 times in an Asda car park in Robroyston by two masked men, an audacious killing that sent shockwaves through the underworld. William "Buff" Paterson became the key suspect and was convicted despite his defence listing 99 people with motives to kill Gerbil.
When Jamie Daniel died of cancer in 2016, his nephew Steven "Bonzo" Daniel took over, becoming a primary target for the Lyons. Bonzo survived a 2017 machete attack that left him with distinctive scarring, but the feud continued into the era of social media, with gangs flaunting lavish lifestyles on TikTok while engaging in violent turf wars.
Steven Lyons' Arrest and Decapitation of the Gang
Steven Lyons's links to the Kinahan cartel led to his downfall. Detectives, using EncroChat evidence, targeted the Kinahans' money manager Johnny Morrissey, gathering enough evidence to arrest Lyons, his wife, and over a dozen key figures earlier this year. The assassination in Spain of his brother and Monaghan was a "decapitation" of the Lyons gang, according to former Police Scotland superintendent Martin Gallagher.
Gallagher noted a shift in thinking among remaining gang members: "Things are just falling into place with what the new normal will be. Although that doesn't look like crime occurring to the general public—so nobody's house is being set on fire, no lorry is being driven through somebody's front door—that means they're focusing on what they want to do to make money—which is import drugs." He added, "There's still crime happening, it's just not as obvious and they're not trying to bump each other off."
Continued Criminal Activity
Just last week, police found a cocaine stash worth £1.7m in Moodiesburn, a village on the outskirts of Glasgow, and charged a 34-year-old man. Graeme Pearson, a former police officer and Labour MSP, said, "The business is too lucrative to suddenly die overnight. It's like running a seam of gold. If you know the gold's there, you'll keep going back to it."
