The Lyons, the feared Scottish drug cartel that moved its tentacles from Marbella and Barcelona

BarcelonaIts symbol is that of a lion. They were born in the 90s on the streets of Glasgow. First, they engaged in petty crime, local delinquency, but they entered the world of drug trafficking and evolved. So much so that they left Scotland and became a transnational drug cartel, with branches in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. They call themselves the Lyons and a Guardia Civil operation has decapitated their presence in Catalonia, Spain, and the world.

Specifically, the Guardia Civil, after a joint police operation with the Scottish police, has made fourteen arrests in Spain, Scotland, Indonesia, and the United Arab Emirates. Among those arrested is the leader of the group, who was arrested in Bali, Indonesia. His partner has also been arrested at Dubai International Airport, as she is considered an active member of the criminal organization.

There was a search of an apartment in Barcelona, where the Lyons' tentacles also reached, but the arrests focused on the Costa del Sol. This Sunday, ARA published a special dossier on the Costa del Sol to explain how this area in southern Spain has become "the UN of organized crime," as admitted by various police sources. In fact, they claimed that practically all the major drug cartels had lieutenants in Marbella. And the case of the Lyons was no exception.

Mainly, it was involved in cocaine trafficking, but the organization also developed a complex money laundering network based on shell companies and international financial transactions. Its ability to operate simultaneously in various countries, including Spain, the United Arab Emirates, or Turkey, and to forge alliances with other major criminal networks has consolidated the clan as one of the most relevant players in contemporary European organized crime, according to the Guardia Civil. Seven arrests were made in the province of Malaga and the others in various parts of the world.

Long trajectory on the Costa del Sol

Police first detected the presence of the Lyons on the Costa del Sol in 2006, after a clash in Glasgow forced some of their members to go into exile. Violence between these types of organizations had one of its most recent episodes last May, when the brother of the leader of the Lyons clan and an associate were shot dead in a beach bar in Fuengirola, Malaga, in an act of revenge. Throughout all these years, the organization's control has remained within the family core, with a continuous generational change.

The investigation has been directed by instruction court number 7 of Malaga, with the intervention of the public prosecutor's office, and has been carried out by the Organized Crime Team of the UCO based in Malaga. In the operational phase, in addition to the Civil Guard and the Police of Scotland, Europol, the Anti-Narcotics Police of Turkey, the Dubai Police, the National Crime Agency (NCA) of the United Kingdom and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) of the United States participated. During the searches, agents seized electronic devices, large amounts of cash, corporate documentation, high-end watches, and cryptocurrency wallets. In addition to those arrested, there are twenty more people under investigation.