Eddie Lyons Snr is the original head of a family recently described by Spanish Police as "one of the most violent criminal organisations that have originated in Scotland in the last few decades." The family has been locked in a violent long-running war spanning more than two decades with the rival Daniel crime clan.
Rise from community centre
Eddie Lyons Snr first came to public attention almost 25 years ago when his role in a community centre called Chirnsyde in the Milton housing estate in Glasgow began to be questioned by locals. Residents and local activists claimed it was being used as a front for organised crime. It was also known as a place where a group of young men known as the 'club boys' met.
The club boys included Eddie's two sons Eddie Lyons Jnr and Steven Lyons, and Ross Monaghan, a close friend of Eddie Jnr.
Two-decade feud with Daniels
The feud with the Daniel family from the neighbouring Possilpark district centred round claims that members of the Lyons gang had in 2001 stolen a £20,000 cache of cocaine from a house in Milton, belonging to the Daniels.
First, the Daniel crew tried to shoot Steven Lyons outside a pub in Lambhill, Glasgow, in September 2001 - but the gunman missed. They then turned their attention to the Chirnsyde centre. It was torched causing £30,000 of damage and had its minibus trashed.
In April 2006, as the feud continued, Daniel enforcer Kevin Carroll drove to Cumbernauld where he blasted Eddie Lyons Jnr at his door but failed to kill him. Then in November that year, Carroll allegedly used a tow rope to topple the headstone of Eddie Snr's late son Garry, who was only eight when he died of leukaemia in 1991.
Two days later he ambushed and attempted to shoot Eddie Lyons Jnr for a second time, in Bellshill, Lanarkshire. Lyons suffered minor injuries when his own car rolled over him. A close associate was hit with at least one round but survived.
Eight days later the Lyons struck back when Carroll was shot along with a close associate in Clelland Avenue, a residential street in Bishopbriggs, near Glasgow. Carroll suffered serious injuries as he was hit in the stomach from close range. The associate was hit in the legs.
MOT station murder
The violence culminated in one of the most brazen murders the city had ever seen. On Wednesday, December 6, 2006, a blue Mazda car drew up outside Applerow Motors in Balmore Road, Glasgow, shortly after 2pm. The MOT station was owned by David Lyons, brother of Eddie Snr, and was operated by both him and his nephew Mark.
Two men in black overcoats and "old men" face masks and brandishing handguns got out and opened fire. Eleven shots were fired, leaving mechanic Michael Lyons dead, and cousin Steven Lyons and Lyons associate Robert Pickett, 41, seriously injured.
Two Daniel associates stood trial at the High Court in Glasgow in March 2008 where they were found guilty of the murder and sentenced to life. The court heard David Lyons received a "ransom note" at his home after the murder demanding £25,000 - the current value of the allegedly stolen cocaine. Lyons didn't pay the money and handed the letter to the police.
The multiple shooting which lasted only a few minutes had taken place yards from a special needs school. Ironically the school was to be the venue for a public meeting for people to air their growing fears about rising crime and gangland violence in the area linked to Eddie Snr and his family. Concerns were being raised about the role of the Lyons in the running of Chirnsyde and the £1.4million in taxpayers' cash it had received over the years. The MOT murder led to the Lyons including Eddie Snr being kicked out of the centre and funding finally being withdrawn.
Legal troubles and succession
In 2012, Eddie Snr was back in the news when he appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Court. He was ordered to hand over £75,000 in assets after previously admitting a £259,000 mortgage fraud in 2010 and having £150,000 of illicit earnings, for which he received 300 hours community service at the time.
Now in his late 60s, he was last seen in public at the joint funeral of Eddie Jnr and Ross Monaghan in June last year. Both had been shot dead in a bar in Fuengirola in the Costa Del Sol, run by Monaghan. Liverpool man Michael Riley, 45, is currently in a Spanish jail accused of the double murder.
In recent years Steven Lyons has been seen as head of the family with Eddie seemingly taking a back seat. He is currently in a Spanish prison cell awaiting trial on organised crime, drug trafficking and money laundering charges. He and 14 Lyons gang members were arrested earlier this year as part of an international police operation involving Scotland, Spain, and Dubai. Steven Lyons was arrested coming off a plane in Bali before being deported to Holland then extradited to Spain.
In January this year Eddie Lyons Snr was issued a chilling threat on social media to firebomb his home in Cumbernauld following a resurgence in violence linked to the long-running feud with the Daniels.
Billy McAllister, the man who first blew the whistle on the Lyons almost 25 years ago, says his warnings were ignored at the time and resulted in their rise from a street corner gang to a global crime syndicate. Over the years, Billy and other local activists were threatened and attacked over their opposition to the Lyons, with Billy's car being firebombed.
Billy won election to Glasgow City Council in 2006 as a local councillor in Milton by vowing to evict the Lyons crime gang from Chirnsyde. He had known Eddie since they were both young men growing up in the sixties in the neighbouring Cadder housing estate.
Billy said: "He never really took off until he took over Chirnsyde, made the connections and became something. That's where he built his power base. He was nothing when I first knew him. He was nothing you would fear. We were complaining for years and nobody did anything until the fatal shooting at the MOT station. If you leave the cancer it grows and grows and grows and that is what happened here."
