Fifteen years ago, the Daniel family were arguably the most powerful organised crime group in Scotland. But their influence was being slowly undermined by the rival Lyons gang in a battle to control the city’s booming drugs trade. In 2006, Lyons family member Michael Lyons had been shot dead and two others injured in a brazen attack at a garage they owned in Glasgow , carried out by two Daniel associates. It was said to have been ordered by the feared and unpredictable Kevin “Gerbil” Carroll, who was also the son-in-law of Jamie Daniel – head of the Daniel crime clan. Gerbil’s own rivalry with the Lyons clan stretched back to his schooldays when he was reportedly bullied by members of the family. In 2004, he had been charged with trying to kill a gang member with an AK-47 assault rifle but the trial later collapsed. Six years later, police intelligence files had him listed as one of the top 15 criminals in Scotland. At the time Carroll – who lived with Jamie Daniel’s daughter Kelly Green in Lennoxtown, East Dunbartonshire – clearly thought he was above the law. He was said to be the leader of a gang that kidnapped rival drug dealers , subjecting them to sickening violence, including torture, to obtain cash, drugs and weapons. Carroll’s targets were often found distraught and half-naked in the street after their ordeals. The attacks were dubbed “alien abductions” because the victims told the police they had no memory of what had happened to them. One dealer allegedly had his fingers broken by Carroll and his crew, who then pulled out a grinder and threatened to cut his nipples off. Father-of-three Carroll had survived two previous shootings in 2003 and 2006, linked to the Daniel and Lyons feud. But in January, 2010, it was third time lucky for the Lyons clan when he finally met his demise. His murder, committed in front of horrified lunchtime shoppers at an Asda supermarket in Robroyston, Glasgow, was arguably the most public gangland hit ever carried out in Scotland. Shortly before 1.30pm on January 13, two masked gunmen fired 13 shots through the windscreen of Carroll’s black Audi A3, hitting him in the head and chest. Terrified mums threw themselves on top of their children in a bid to protect them from any stray bullets. Carroll, who was trapped in the Audi’s back seat, could only hold a car manual to his face in a vain effort to deflect the bullets. The attack lasted just 25 seconds and he died instantly. The two killers then escaped in a stolen Volkswagen Golf, dumping the guns behind a library in Coatbridge. Carroll was at the Asda for a meeting with a local drug dealer who he had warned: “You’re working for me now, anybody that doesn’t fall in line is going to get banged.” The terrified man was left in no doubt that he would be shot if he didn’t do what he was told. Carroll reportedly got the Gerbil nickname as a child from the Kevin character on the popular 80s children’s TV show Roland Rat. However, there was nothing cute or likeable about this Kevin. Former Strathclyde Police detective David Moran, who was involved in the original Carroll murder investigation, later took part in a Channel Five Documentary about the Gerbil case, which was broadcast in 2019. He told viewers: “Carroll carried out what was by then a well- established routine that he did before carrying out a shooting. “He’d shave all his body hair off and shave his head as close as he could get it to avoid leaving DNA anywhere. “At the conclusion of the shooting, he would douse his body in diesel to eliminate any firearms residue.” The viewers were also told that Police Scotland was stunned by the level of violence in his death. Moran added: “You think you’ve seen it all in the police but a murder of that nature carried out in broad daylight in such a public area – even I was shocked at that.” Two men charged with Carroll’s murder stood trial separately at the High Court in Glasgow in 2012 and 2015. In the first, Lyons associate Ross Monaghan, 30, from the city’s Penilee, walked free after a judge ruled there was a lack of evidence against him and therefore no case to answer. The court heard from detectives saying Carroll was a violent loose cannon and many people wanted him dead. Following his trial, it emerged Constable Derek McLeod had leaked secret surveillance data detailing the movements of Gerbil to the Lyons mobsters. McLeod, 43, from Lothian and Borders Police, was jailed for three years and seven months at the High Court in Edinburgh. Three years after Monaghan walked free a second man, William “Buff” Paterson, stood trial on the same charge. This time a jury found the 35-year- old guilty. Paterson was sentenced to life and told he must serve 22 years before he could be considered for parole. Paterson, from Cumbernauld , had left Scotland for Spain 10 days after the murder and never returned. But in June 2014, he unexpectedly returned to face the charges against him having handed himself into police in Madrid. If he thought the case would go the same way as Monaghan’s, he was mistaken. Paterson’s DNA was found on the handle of a plastic bag that one of the murder weapons was found in. A mobile phone used by Paterson on the day of the murder placed him in Asda around the time of the shooting. His phone was also traced to Coatbridge, where the guns were dumped. In his defence, Paterson claimed six different men could have carried out the murder, including the drug dealer who Gerbil had met before his death. During both trials, evidence was heard from ordinary members of the public caught up in the shooting. Shopper Emma Busby, 35, said: “I thought it was like another Dunblane massacre. I kept hearing the sound of a baby crying.” Campbell Corrigan was in charge of the 2006 investigation into Michael Lyons murder and retired in 2013 at the rank of Chief Constable. He said: “The levels of violence and disregard for others people’s safety were incredible.” Three months later, Maryhill Police Office in Glasgow was firebombed twice in a bid to destroy a car seized after his death – allegedly on the orders of Jamie Daniel. Corrigan added: “They were making a point, they weren’t lying down to the police.” In September 2015 an ally of Gerbil’s, Ross Sherlock, was shot near St Helen’s Primary School in Bishopbriggs after picking up his daughter. And in January 2017, Monaghan, who had walked on the Gerbil murder, was shot outside St George’s Primary School in Penilee, after doing the same. Both men survived the attacks and no one was convicted. However it was the death from cancer of Jamie Daniel that would take the feud in a new direction and dramatically shift the balance of power between the two feuding factions. Tomorrow: How a Glasgow crime rivalry became a global gang war.