'UNDERWORLD TINDERBOX' IS GLOBAL SYNDICATE AT WORK

Police are battling to keep a lid on explosion of gangland violence in the capital

- By Richard Elias

AN "underworld timebomb" which has seen drive-by shootings, petrol bombings and online threats is being stoked by one of the world's most-wanted criminal syndicates.

While police battle to keep a lid on the "tinderbox" which is Edinburgh's underworld, the situation is being deliberately escalated by organised crime figures thousands of miles away.

It is being orchestrated by an individual currently behind bars in Scotland but whose criminal career has helped him obtain connections around the globe.

But the plot also involves some of Scotland's best-known criminal figures as well as a family with a huge bounty on their heads.

The Kinahans may have relocated from their Dublin home to the sunnier climes of Dubai and to some extent their influence may have waned recently but they can still pull strings.

Several of the family relocated to Dubai after international law enforcement began to close in on them on their activities.

This culminated in April 2022 with the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) placing a $5million. (£3.86m) bounty on the head of Daniel Kinahan who had taken over the running of the OCG from his father, Christy "the Dapper Don" Kinahan.

Among the close friends of the cartel's 47-year-old leader is Steven Lyons, head of the notorious Lyons family from north Glasgow.

He set up home in the United Arab Emirates after initially fleeing to southern Spain following an attempt on his life which left his 21-year-old cousin, Michael, dead.

Once there, Lyons, struck up a relationship with Daniel Kinahan and is rumoured to have attended the latter's wedding in May 2021 to Caoimhe Robinson, held at Dubai's seven-star Burj-al Arab Hotel in the glitzy Emirates city.