The Costa del Sol Shooting
The evening of 8 June brought the Nations League final to a Fuengirola bar on Spain’s Costa del Sol, where patrons gathered to watch the match. Just as the game concluded, a car arrived outside Monaghans, a seaside establishment. From the vehicle emerged a masked gunman who approached the table of Eddie Lyons Jr, a 46-year-old man, and shot him directly in the face. The assailant then turned toward Ross Monaghan, the bar’s 43-year-old owner and Lyons’ friend, but the firearm jammed. This moment was captured on grainy CCTV footage, showing Monaghan scrambling into the bar to escape his pursuer. He fell to the ground and was shot three times while crawling on his hands and knees. The shooter vanished into the night, likely leaving the country shortly after. The murders marked the peak of an intense 25-year conflict between two powerful Glasgow families and their allies in organized crime: the Lyons and the Daniels.
The shooting in Fuengirola was not an isolated incident, but rather the apex of a long-standing feud. The Lyons and Daniels families, described as Scotland’s most untouchable criminal factions, have been embroiled in a violent struggle that has spilled over into various regions. Earlier this month, authorities noted a significant decline in gang-related violence. After a particularly brutal six-month surge that saw attacks and firebombings across Scotland, Police Scotland recorded a notable drop in criminal activity, describing it as 'a clear and obvious downturn of activity'. The force attributed this shift to a combination of factors, including internal changes within organized crime groups.
Karyn McCluskey, a leading figure in Scotland’s Violence Reduction Unit, speculated that the warring factions might have altered their methods under pressure from law enforcement. She stated, 'If you're a good organised crime group, you don’t commit violence, because that’s just what brings the police down on you.' This strategic shift suggests that the gangs may now be operating more discreetly to avoid attracting police attention, a common response to increased surveillance and enforcement.
Over the course of a year, law enforcement arrested 64 individuals following 84 violent incidents tied to the feud. These operations led to the recovery of seven firearms and the establishment of more than 90 safeguarding plans aimed at protecting vulnerable members of the public who were caught in the crossfire. A pivotal development occurred in 2020 when officers in 13 European countries infiltrated EncroChat, an encrypted communication platform widely used by organized crime groups. The infiltration enabled police to monitor drug trafficking, weapon exchanges, and even murder plots in real time.
By 2023, the breach of EncroChat had led to the arrest of 6,558 individuals around the world, with over 3,000 of those arrests occurring in the UK. The operation continues to generate substantial evidence, with defendants appearing in court regularly based on data gathered from the compromised communications. The impact of this global operation has been profound, significantly disrupting criminal networks.
The origins of this deadly rivalry trace back to 2001, when a £20,000 stash of drugs belonging to the Daniel family was stolen. The theft, suspected to have been carried out by associates of the Lyons, including Monaghan and Eddie Lyons Jr, ignited a chain of retaliatory violence. The Daniel family, led by patriarch Jamie Daniel, a ruthless scrap-metal dealer turned heroin kingpin, was known for its brutality. His notoriety included violent beatings and the unsolved sniper murder of a rival drug dealer. A former detective inspector, David Moran, described Jamie Daniel as 'one or two steps ahead of the police and pretty much untouchable' in a 2018 documentary.
The feud escalated further in the mid-2000s, with Kevin 'Gerbil' Carroll, Jamie Daniel’s son-in-law and chief enforcer, playing a central role in the violence. Gerbil was infamous for his sadistic tactics, including 'alien abduction' kidnaps, during which victims were stripped, tortured, and left disoriented and in their underwear. His reputation for brutality led to a spate of murders in Glasgow, which, in 2005, earned the city the grim title of 'murder capital of the UK'. By 2006, the cycle of retaliation reached a breaking point when Gerbil, avenging a gunshot wound, desecrated the grave of Eddie Lyons Sr’s eight-year-old son. This act of desecration, considered a serious breach in the criminal underworld, provoked a retaliatory ambush weeks later. At a garage, two Daniel hitmen, disguised in 'old man' rubber masks, executed a daylight attack that claimed the life of 21-year-old Michael Lyons, an innocent member of the Lyons family.