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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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One of Scotland's most high-profile gangland figures, Stephen Lyons, has been arrested by police in Bali and is now set to be sent back to Spain to face money laundering charges. Lyons, who's a long-time associate of Daniel Kinahan, has been on the move after a series of arrests in Dubai and Bahrain, but now an Interpol red notice means that he's wanted before the courts in Spain.
Today, I'm talking with Niall Donald about Lyons and his connections to Irish criminals. You're listening to Crime World, a podcast from crimeworld.com. Thank you. So that's some video of Stephen Lyons getting arrested again, this time in Bali. He's coming off a plane on a flight from Singapore. He's been arrested previously in Dubai and... Bahrain. Bahrain, yeah. He was...
extradited or kicked out of Dubai. No, he was, was he kicked out of Dubai and he was allowed to choose where he wanted to go and at that point he was supposed to have gone to Turkey. He's obviously a big player in the Scottish gangland scene, has been for decades and is very closely linked to the Kinahan organisation.
He's wanted, according to police in Spain, and is wanted for money laundering, which I'm sure is probably a lesser evil for him than heading back to the UK. Because as we've seen with the Spanish system, it's very slow. most people get bail as the investigations continue.
And when it comes to money laundering, there was an announcement some years ago that the biggest money laundering investigation in its history had been identified, Jani Morrissey, as the sort of the head money launderer, essentially, of the Kinnan organisation. He has got bail. He's back out.
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Chapter 2: Who is Steven Lyons and why was he arrested in Bali?
He's back living with his wife. And you hear very little as the case trundles on. So anyway, Stephen Lyons is, you know, coming back, I suppose, to tread a well-worn path that others have as well. Of course, Christy Kinahan Sr. and his two sons were also charged with major offences in Spain in 2010, and in particular money laundering for him.
And as the time went by, as the investigation in front of the magistrate continued, all the charges were dropped. Exactly.
I mean, the Spanish police have proven to have a difficulty bringing these sort of complex cases involving the movement of money in particular to fruition. Now, this is definitely, though, a major operation targeting that whole Lines criminal organization, because there wasn't just Stephen Lines who was picked up.
Chapter 3: What are the connections between Steven Lyons and Daniel Kinahan?
There was a total of 13 people arrested. A number of, most of them in Scotland, in various locations, including Glasgow, but also in more rural areas. And then there was other operations in Spain, in Malaga in particular. So it's a, Europol were heavily involved. Obviously the UK, due to Brexit, are, you know, they're very close links with Europol still.
So they obviously carried it out in conjunction with them. And they have said it's in particular to do with what is the setting up of what they describe as fictitious companies, which is really the standard for money laundering, where you set up one company and then you set up another company and you start switching things between all of these and it just disguises the pattern of money.
But yeah, it's still a major... I suppose it's a major scalp really for the police, even if that conviction is certainly yet to be done.
I mean, that's obviously the very complicated bit, but I suppose the fact that these offences seem to have gone on in Spain is also interesting because we do know that certainly while they were in Spain, the link between the Kenhans and the Lions criminal organisation was very,
They were almost a franchise of the Kinnegan cartel and they moved to Dubai probably later than the Kinnegan sons but they certainly have been there for a while.
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of the Interpol Red Notice for Lyons?
So it would just be interesting to see that intersection.
So it was 2006 when Stephen Lyons survived a shooting at a garage in Lamb Hill in north of Glasgow and it claimed the life of his cousin Michael Lyons. At that point he moved to Spain before settling in Dubai and he forged his relationship with Daniel Kinahan while he was operating as a boxing promoter living in the Costa del Sol.
It's said that by the mid-2010s, the Lyons Group had basically hit the big time. You know, they had become bigger and wealthier by tapping into the Kinahan's network of suppliers and logistics. Now, there's been a lot of activity around the Lyons and the Daniels, and that feud goes back decades.
It goes back over two decades now at this stage.
Longer nearly. It was three decades nearly at this stage. So that feud had been bubbling away and Lyons, I suppose, taking himself out of Scotland, took himself a little bit away from that. And the feud has sort of always been going along. But in recent years, it started up again.
Yeah, I mean, it certainly looked like during the 2010s, it looked like the Lions gang had been victorious. They were making way more money as a result of that link to the Kinnhans. They seem to have a much better structure and they seem to have a network of dealers in Scotland and they seem to have been triumphant. But in recent years, the remnants of the Daniels organisation
linked up with Mark Richardson, who was a notorious Edinburgh criminal figure. And the feud began again. It began, I suppose, at a street level initially. Again, it was to do with
payment for a call of cocaine that was in dispute and it reignited it and this time the Daniels and the Richardson organisation seemed to have more soldiers on the ground I suppose and ultimately probably the most infamous moment of that feud is the shooting dead of Stephen Lyons' brother Ross Monaghan Ross Monaghan and
That was last May in Fungarola on the Costa del Sol, Eddie Lyons and Ross Monaghan. Now, that's somewhat difficult to understand, that double murder. Both of them had spent the evening watching a Champions League match and they were targeted by a lone gunman. There is a guy from Liverpool in custody in Spain, a guy called Michael Riley, a 44-year-old. But while the Spanish police have...
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Chapter 5: How has the Scottish gangland scene influenced Lyons' activities?
There's an Interpol red notice and according to the police in Bally, Stephen Lyons is described as based on intelligence. Data SL, now they don't name him, but Stephen Lyons is strongly suspected of being the leader of an international criminal organization. He is suspected of being the mastermind behind the operation of several fictitious companies and being involved in money laundering.
And then they say they won't be a safe haven, Bali won't be a safe haven for international fugitives. So he's obviously going to end up back in Spain. I presume he can put up some sort of fight, but it wouldn't look likely to be successful. So, I mean, I suppose this, again, it's all of these Kinahan allies who've been based in Dubai and they're falling one by one really, aren't they?
Now there was obviously rumours spoken about in recent times that that really close link between the Kinnans and the lions had fractured and frayed in recent times. You spoke about the man being charged in relation to the murder, the double murder of Eddie Lyons and Ross Monaghan.
He's from Liverpool, you know, and he was, I think, in one of the court proceedings described as being somebody who was hired to carry it out rather than a player in it. Now obviously he hasn't been convicted of that crime and he has pled not guilty and that'll come before the courts. So it's certainly a mysterious network.
So just to let you know that a year has passed since Johnny Morrissey was released and was spotted on the Costa del Sol enjoying an Easter day out with his wife Nicola Morrissey. He is still before the courts as far as we know on those money laundering charges which were said to involve 200 million euro for the gang and he had been arrested in September 2022
And the 200 million for the Kinahan organization that he was said to have laundered had happened in the previous 18 months. So he was held, he was held for 20 months in jail in Malaga without being charged before his release in May of 23. Yeah. 23, no, May of 24. Sorry, May of 24. Yeah. And, you know, he continues to build that.
Well, supposedly they're going to open this wellness and rehab center out there. Johnny Marcy, of course, is sanctioned. He's on the list. He's named by the U.S. Treasury as one of the as the Kinahan's money man. And yet. the process in Spain, you know, you would have to question if it is good enough to prosecute these organized crime charges.
We've seen in our own country and in all countries across the world that the legal systems have to be updated as the criminals adapt. Obviously, the movement of money across international borders has provided a big challenge for law enforcement. If you look at how criminals used to operate in Ireland, where they'd literally buy houses and get a few receipts from the bookies and hope for the best.
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Chapter 6: What role does money laundering play in Lyons' criminal activities?
But those days are gone since the world of international finance has changed. So the movement of money through companies and across borders means that the laws have to change within a country. Now in Spain, Spain have a very efficient police force certainly in arresting suspects and drug seizures, all of that.
But if you look at the Irish people, and we only really focus on the Irish and some of the UK people, We've rarely seen anybody not caught red-handed or directly involved in an act go to prison. A lot of Irish people have been done, for example, for murders and for drug seizures, but it's really they've been there, caught there or almost caught in the act.
So, we've had to update our laws, the laws we use to bring people to justice. For example, people like Sean McGovern recently, their laws that weren't being regularly used in the past. So Spain, from a distance, it looks like that's proving to be a challenge for them. And that's in part why I suppose criminals use Spain as a base.
Because traditionally, even back in the day, it was seen that there were certain types of crime that were easier to get away with over there. But yeah, it's interesting that these offences are alleged to have occurred in Spain. And because we do know, I mean, they were absolutely hand in glove.
Even in the level of boxing, you had people from the Lions organisation involved in that world with the Kinnahans. I mean, they were literally... You know, they were literally hand in glove, I suppose.
Well, look, we'll keep an eye on developments on that story in regard to Stephen Lyons. I wonder how long he'll get to spend in Bali and what their prison system is like.
Yeah, they have him in a hell of a prison anyway.
It's always... It's always a hell hole. It's always a hell hole, isn't it? I would have thought it might be a hell hole there. I wouldn't fancy it myself. No. So sometimes the return to the extradition return is of great... joy to them, really, when they sort of come back into the familiar surroundings. And I'm not sure how handy Spain prison is in Spain either.
I've heard quite bad reports of what it's like.
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