Pearson wants a crack team to rid Scotland of high level criminals

A FORMER top cop who snared cocaine crime boss Jamie “Iceman” Stevenson has called for a elite police force to crack down on gangsters in Scotland.

- BY NORMAN SILVESTER

Graeme Pearson says a special independent team must be set up to bring down the high-ranking hoods waging war on Scotland's streets and that it should no longer be the responsibility of an already under-resourced and overstretched Police Scotland.

The ex-director general of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA) believes tackling gangland crime will be more successful if crooks at the top are brought to justice.

These include mobsters such as Glasgow crime clan bosses Steven Lyons and Bonzo Daniel and ex-Union Bears boss turned kingpin Ross McGill.

Pearson said: “We need to revolutionise our responses to organised crime. It demands a better focus of resources if the march of the gangs is to be undermined.”

Pearson believes a new organisation would be better equipped to target the increasingly sophisticated international drug running operations of crime gangs and bring the leaders to justice.