Liverpool gangs are said to have established a network reaching the depths of Scotland in recent years
06:00, 26 Feb 2026
Michael Terrence Riley was arrested in connection with the murders of Ross Monaghan and Eddie Lyons Jr in Fuengirola, Spain last May
A spotlight glared down on the link between Liverpool and Glasgow last year following news Merseyside man Michael Riley had been arrested and extradited to Spain. Spanish police believe he is the man who shot Glasgow crime bosses Ross Monaghan and Eddie Lyons Jr in an assassination at Monaghan’s bar in Fuengirola in Spain last May.
The lucrative and illicit link between the two cities became headline news, something county lines gangs will have despaired over. In a new interview, author and editor Richard Elias has discussed how Liverpool has been supplying Scotland’s crime bosses with hard drugs for the last 50 years, with most of the multi-million pound trade going through Glasgow.
He claims the drug connection between the two cities heightened in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the booming growth of the heroin trade.
Richard, who co-authored Cocky, the acclaimed bestseller about infamous Liverpool gangster Curtis ‘Cocky’ Warren, said: “There was report that at one stage, 80% of Scotland’s narcotics came from Merseyside.
“I don’t think the figures today are quite that high but they are still significant. Couriers are sent down down the M74 and M6 with the money and they come back with the drugs.
“The big factor in the drugs trade in Liverpool and across Merseyside is the port itself and the container terminal at Seaforth. The terminal provides a direct link with South and Central America and the Caribbean.
“The difficulty of being able to search such a large complex gives criminals the opportunity to bring in large amounts of narcotics.”
The only English city where foreign criminals haven’t got a foothold
Speaking to the Daily Record’s Criminal Record podcast, Richard explained cannabis was the first drug that came out of Liverpool in the 1970s before heroin and ecstasy soon followed in the 1980s. Now, cocaine and ketamine are the drugs that are shipped out of the city.
He added: “Liverpool is one of the top three distribution hubs in the UK for drugs. It is the only city in England where foreign criminals such as Albanians haven’t managed to get a foothold.”
Richard, who is deputy editor of the Scottish Daily Express, says the main route for all drugs into Scotland is Liverpool to Glasgow.
But, in the last five years, Liverpool gangs have now established their own drug distribution networks to smaller Scottish towns in Aberdeenshire, Inverness and the Highlands while being careful not step on the toes of their Glasgow counterparts.
Most notably in recent decades is Christopher Welsh Jr, nicknamed the “Scouse Escobar”, who was hauled before the courts after he was found to have run a huge-scale drug operation with his dad before continuing his illicit activities behind bars. Welsh Jr ran an organised crime group (OCG) with his dad Welsh Sr, supplying cocaine and heroin worth tens of millions of pounds to Glasgow gangs.
Christopher Welsh Jr
Titan, the former North West organised crime unit, said the gang’s couriers made at least 111 trips as part of the massive cross-border operation. The drugs, which were estimated to have a street value of between £100m to £200m, allowed jobless Welsh Jr and his associates to live the good life.
The gang ran out of luck and were handed significant prison sentences in May 2013. But Welsh Jr didn’t stay out of trouble for long, and, returning to his old ways within just two months, was back trafficking heroin and cocaine to Scotland. During the course of two separate conspiracies around £3m worth of drugs were moved from Merseyside to other regions.
Richard says organised crime in Liverpool and across Merseyside is controlled by around six major crime groups and there is not the equivalent violent long running feud seen in Glasgow between the Lyons and Daniel families.
Most of the violence including fatal shootings involves smaller groups of young criminals – dubbed postcode gangs – fighting over street territories particularly in the north of Liverpool.
Richard added: “The major players tend to keep a much lower profile. They don’t want law enforcement bodies like the National Crime Agency or Merseyside Police going through their doors.
“If they can keep it quiet it means a better lifestyle for them, more money and less hassle. I think they are quite happy if these kids in the street gangs – the postcode gangs – are taking the attention away from them that suits them.
Police scene after shooting on Kirkstone Road North, Litherland, Liverpool.(Image: Liverpool Echo)
“The people at the top will keep themselves very much to themselves. They will carry on with their dealings and the dealing will be global, whether it be south America, Spain or the United Araba Emirates”
Richard says the level of gun violence in Liverpool is far greater than that seen in Glasgow.
He added: “Merseyside has a far higher propensity for firearms related violence than Scotland, particularly the West of Scotland. The ability to source weapons has been compared to a lending library. You can rent a weapon including ammunition.
“If you use the weapon you have to pay an increased fee and then hand the weapon back. Often in a court case you will hear that the same weapon has been used four or five times.
“That’s down to the library system that has been in existence for 30 years”
It comes after Merseyside saw two injury shootings in November last year, with former Liverpool academy player Paddy Lacey among four men accused of attempted murder in connection to one of the two incidents in Huyton. The target of the shooting being Jordan ‘Dusty’ Thompson, as revealed by the ECHO last week.
The other incident saw a 19-year-old man shot in the street, with CCTV showing a person exiting a car and directly shooting at the man on Manley Road before getting back in the car and driving off. No arrests have been made in connection to the incident.
Moment gunman opens fire on Manley Road in Huyton
However, two months into 2026 and Merseyside is yet to see a shooting, despite Richard’s claims of a library-like firearms system operating in the region.
Liverpool has a long history of organised crime with notable recent crime figures including Tommy Comerford, Curtis Warren, John Haase and feared Scot Ian McAteer.
Richard says Haase was known to have supplied a Magnum gun to a well known Glasgow crime figure for which he was later arrested and locked up.
Warren, who is 63, has convictions for manslaughter and drug smuggling, and was formerly Interpol’s number one target. Not only that, but the infamous Liverpool criminal was once named on The Sunday Times Rich List.
McAteer, from Dalmuir in Clydebank, was a prominent face in the Glasgow and Merseyside criminal underworld during the 1990’s having risen through the ranks.
In 2001 at Liverpool Crown Court, McAteer was found guilty of the murder of drug dealer Warren Selkirk who was shot five times at point blank range at Crosby Marina in the city. A plastic bag filled with dog excrement – said to be a sign of contempt – was found in his right hand.
Richard says the arrest of 45-year old-Michael Riley for the murders of Ross Monaghan and Eddie Lyons Jr caused some surprise back in Liverpool and believes it could be several years before he stands trial. Richard added: “Riley is a very unknown factor.
Ross Monaghan and Eddie Lyons Jnr in 2017(Image: Daily Record)
“He hasn’t been on the radar of a lot of people for quite a while. One Merseyside solicitor described him as a fairly non-descript individual and was surprised his name was thrown into the ring for this.”
Richard was surprised when Riley dropped his opposition to extradition in October and agreed to go to Spain to stand trial, following his arrest in Liverpool last June. He understands that much of the evidence against him relates to CCTV footage at various locations including Monaghan’s bar and airports in England and Portugal.
Richard added: “By all accounts Riley could be languishing in a Spanish cell for quite some time before being brought to trial.”
Richard’s Criminal Record interview can be viewed here.
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