We're stopping crime at source

Officers happy to splash the cash on informants

- BY NORMAN SILVESTER

SPENDING on police informants has soared as officers battle Scotland's raging gangland war.

The Record can reveal Police Scotland spent a record-breaking £342,730 on informants - dubbed “grasses” in the criminal underworld - last year.

That was almost £40,000 more than was splashed on Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS) the previous year.

And more than double the amount being spent in 2014, when £136,703 was the total.

Last year’s increase comes on the back of Operation Portaledge, launched in March to target an outbreak of violence linked to a 25-year feud between the Glasgow-based Lyons and Daniel crime families.

To date, the Portaledge probe has resulted in over 60 arrests and several gang members handed lengthy prison terms.

The violence is alleged to have been orchestrated by former Rangers ultras leader Ross McGill, using a shadowy group called Tamo Junto.