Forensic scientists identified 530 DNA traces at crime scenes across Scotland, helping police arrest 83 people as part of Operation Portaledge, a major ongoing investigation into organised crime. The Scottish Police Authority's (SPA) Forensic Services team supported the probe, which linked incidents from petrol bombings to machete attacks to a long-running feud between the Lyons and Daniel crime families.
Forensic work unprecedented
The SPA Forensic Services team's main role was to find DNA and other evidence at various crime scenes to help police identify suspects. The volume of cases they attended last year alone – more than 100 – was described as unprecedented. Their work involved attending incidents where homes and businesses had been set on fire, with DNA the main source of evidence rather than fingerprints.
In many cases, they found DNA at different crime scenes belonging to the same suspect. The Lyons and Daniel feud was reignited last year following an alleged fallout between Ross McGill, the former head of Rangers ultras fan group the Union Bears, and convicted Edinburgh drug baron Mark Richardson. McGill has strong links to the Lyons crime clan and Richardson to the Daniel family.
Violence and evidence
McGill is believed to have been ripped off when a £500,000 consignment of cocaine was allegedly paid for with fake money by a Richardson associate. Much of the violence, both in Edinburgh and Glasgow, including the firebombings, has been linked to a shadowy group, allegedly orchestrated by McGill, called Tamo Junto.
The worst violence was in the six-month period up to September last year, with a resurgence in the early part of this year and again in August with more incidents and arrests. Most of the targets were members and associates of the Daniel family. During investigations, DNA and fingerprints were found on the necks of bottles and on the rags used as makeshift wicks, which are placed in the opening of the bottles and set on fire to ignite the fuel. Evidence was also retrieved from items dropped at the scene or dumped into the fires, such as petrol containers.
Prosecutions and impact
Some of the cloth or rags cut up into wicks for the petrol bombs had been used more than once at different crime scenes, which further helped identify suspects. Vehicles crashed into buildings to cause damage or used as getaways also provided vital DNA evidence, having been left by the drivers and passengers. The 530 DNA profiles was the most for any single operation that the forensic scientists had been involved with, with most investigations involving fire bombings and other types of attacks. However, the team also probed several incidents where guns were fired outside properties and people attacked with machetes.
DNA found at crime scenes can normally be obtained from blood, sweat, saliva, skin cells and hair strands left there by suspects, often from discarded items like cigarette butts or chewing gum. Most of the cases investigated by Police Scotland and SPA Forensic Services resulted in suspects pleading guilty before the case went to trial. The violence first erupted on March 6 last year when a beauty salon in Albert Street, Edinburgh, close to Easter Road, was set on fire and badly damaged. Logan Carlin, 24, was filmed starting a blaze which was allegedly co-owned by the partner of Mark Richardson. Carlin was later snared after his DNA was found in a stolen vehicle and jailed earlier this year for seven years and four months at the High Court in Edinburgh.
Liam McDermid, 25, was caged for six years and nine months in November at the same court after using a metal detector to search for a Glock pistol which had been hidden near a primary school in the capital. He admitted being involved in serious and organised crime after a police surveillance operation caught him searching in undergrowth in Edinburgh. It was the first prosecution under Operation Portaledge. In April this year, 21-year-old Owen Martin was jailed for three years at Glasgow Sheriff Court for setting fire to the home of Daniel family member Kelly Green in Glasgow's Drumchapel in May 2025. Green's father was the late crime boss Jamie Daniel, who died of cancer in 2016. Her partner was family enforcer Kevin "Gerbil" Carroll, who was shot dead in an Asda car park in Robroyston, Glasgow in 2010.
The Scottish Police Authority is responsible for providing forensic services to Police Scotland, the Crown Office and the Police Investigations and Reviews Commissioner (PIRC). Six hundred scientists operate from five main laboratory sites in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, and Glasgow, as well as the Scottish Crime Campus in Gartcosh, Lanarkshire. An SPA Forensic Services spokesperson said: "Operation Portaledge is a major Police Scotland investigation that is supported by Forensic Services. This operation involved in a significant number of incidents across the central belt over a short-time period. More than 100 cases were submitted which resulted in the generation of more than 500 DNA profiles, which is unprecedented for one operation. The vast majority of these were related to fire-raising and we had multiple scenes which could be linked back to the same individuals. The work carried out by Forensic Services staff, which was reported to Police Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, contributed to the overall investigation and subsequent court cases."
