RIVALS and allies saw slain Ross Monaghan as the Lyons gang’s top man — and joked it should be called ‘the Monaghan clan’.
Insiders say the hood, 43, was instrumental in fostering relations with Kinahan crime-lords, with his links stretching back nearly a decade.
The Scottish SunRoss Monaghan was seen as the Lyons gang top man by rivals[/caption]
Monaghan and Eddie Lyons Jr were murdered in a gangland assassination in SpainSolarpix
Google MapsThey were shot to death at Monaghan’s Bar in in Fuengirola last weekend[/caption]
The Scottish SunEddie Lyons Jr was also killed in the gangland execution[/caption]
The Scottish SunEddie’s brother Steven is often seen as boss of the Lyons gang[/caption]
He was given power to make major calls on operations for the mob from his base in Spain.
There were fears of further bloodshed following his assassination alongside Eddie Lyons Jr, 46, in Fuengirola last weekend.
A source told The Scottish Sun on Sunday: “Eddie’s brother Steven is often seen as boss of the Lyons gang but, in reality, Ross Monaghan was on an equal footing.
“He sometimes made more big decisions to the point some joked it should be called the Monaghan gang instead of the Lyons.
“That’s why his murder is so shocking. He was a significant figure for such a long time.
“Whoever is behind the killings would’ve known they were going after a guy at the very top.
“It has sent shockwaves through the underworld. Everyone is now nervous but nobody knows what’s going to happen next.”
The pair were gunned down after they’d watched the Champions League final at Monaghan’s bar in the Costa Del Sol resort.
He’d been drawn into a life of crime as a teen in the late ’90s at a youth centre in Glasgow’s Milton run by Eddie Lyons Sr, the dad of Eddie and Steven, 44.
In 2012, Monaghan was cleared of murdering rival Kevin ‘Gerbil’ Carroll, 29, who was gunned down in the city’s Robroyston in 2010.
Five years later he survived being shot as he dropped his kids off at school in Penilee.
Graeme Pearson, former head of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, explained the incidents enhanced Monaghan’s underworld reputation.
He said: “His group became known for extreme violence.
“Being acquitted from a murder trial through lack of evidence proved his bottle to the gang.
“Then he was shot and survived. It was part of his criminal CV.
“But people like Monaghan make enemies everywhere.”
Kinahan UK chief meeting
BY CHRIS TAYLOR
ROSS Monaghan rubbed shoulders with the head of the Kinahan’s UK operation, we can reveal.
He met now jailed drug smuggler Thomas ‘Bomber’ Kavanagh as far back as 2016.
Stephen Breen, crime editor at The Irish Sun, said: “Ross Monaghan’s name cropped up in terms of someone who had connections to him.
“It was all about the wholesale trafficking of drugs into the UK.
“The Kinahans have the capability to recruit individuals to wage war against their enemies.
“In any gangland feud, when you have one or two people killed, it’s not the end.”
The attempt on the gangster’s life in January 2017 came just months after he’d fostered ties with the Kinahans, from Dublin, who made a fortune flooding Europe with drugs.
Monaghan was brought into the fold as the Irish cartel’s bosses — who have a £4million bounty on their heads in the US — looked to step up their activities in Britain.
It’s believed he was the main target of the hitman who blasted him and Lyons in front of terrified holidaymakers last Saturday.
It’s understood Spanish cops could know the shooter’s identity but have not yet established which crew he was hired by.
Scots Tories leader Russell Findlay was an investigative crime reporter before he entered politics and covered the Gerbil murder trial.
He remembers Monaghan as he made his bid to dupe jurors and the public into believing that he was a “smart, besuited and respectable young man”.
But Mr Findlay added: “It was fiction. He was a dangerous, drug-dealing, gangland thug.”
On Friday a group of protestors, including dozens of UK expats, held up banners in Fuengirola as they called for a crackdown on organised crime in the area.
They demanded that local politicians take action and put more police on the streets following a spate of gang-related shootings that included the savage murders of Monaghan and Lyons.
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