The new boss of the Daniel crime clan Francis ‘Fraggle’ Green swallowed two sim cards at the scene of a gangland execution.
He took over as head of the family from his cousin Steven ‘Bonzo’ Daniel, 46, who was arrested in a dawn raid last month and faces a lengthy jail spell on serious organised crime offences on charges.
Fraggle, 44, was relatively unknown to the general public before his best friend Kevin ‘Gerbil’ Carroll was gunned down by a hitman from the rival Lyons mob in the car park of an Asda in Robroyston in 2010.
However, when he arrived on the scene before the police his role in the Daniel network soon became apparent.
Gerbil moved to the Milton area from Drumchapel when he was a young boy but after he was bullied at school by Eddie and Steven Lyons, 46, he struck up a friendship with Fraggle and sought protection from the Daniel family.
While Fraggle, the son of the late crime boss Jamie Daniel, lurked behind the scene in his younger years, Gerbil went on to become of Scotland’s most notorious gangsters.
When the Daniel and Lyons clan went to war, Gerbil was at the centre of the fued and survived being shot in 2003.
Gerbil, who was Fraggle’s sister Kelly ‘Bo’ Green’s long term partner, is believed to have blasted mobster Eddie Lyons in 2006 and ordered a gangland shooting at Applerow garage in the Lambill area of Glasgow later in the same year that left Michael Lyons, 21, dead and Steven Lyons, 46, wounded in the leg.
The Lyons family sought revenge and caught up with Gerbil when he was shot dead as he sat in the back of a black Audi at the Asda car park at the age of 29.
Before the cops even arrived Fraggle raced to the scene and dumped his car in the middle of the road after he was tipped off by Stephen McLaggan and John Bonner, who had been with Gerbil when he was murdered.
Ross Monaghan, who was shot dead in the Costa Del Sol along with Eddie Lyons, was accused of the murder and went on trial in 2012.
In court, it was heard how Fraggle had reached into the back of the Audi and took two mobile phones belonging to Gerbil and swallowed the sim cards.
He claimed the sim cards were from his own phone and admitted doing so in an effort to hide the family’s criminal operation from the police.
When questioned Fraggle went on to explain how he had been in contact with Gerbil every day for 15 years and had been on the phone with him just 20 minutes before he was killed.
It was rumoured in underworld circles that Gerbil may have been set up by the Daniel clan but Fraggle firmly denied this.
Fraggle was asked if his dad Jamie Daniel got on with Carroll. He replied: “Yeah.” He was then asked: “Are you sure?” He said: “Positive.”
When asked about his involvement in organised crime Fraggle claimed to be a £10 an hour car valeter despite driving a high-powered sports car with a private registration.
Witnesses described how Fraggle arrived at the car park and started giving McLaggan and Bonner orders.
It was put to Fraggle these were the actions of a crime boss but he denied the accusation.
He was asked if he knew what Carroll did for a living and said he “no idea,” but his evidence at the trial was described by defence QC Derek Ogg as “contemptible nonsense.”
Monaghan eventually was acquitted but another Lyons enforcer William ‘Buff’ Paterson was convicted of the murder in 2015 and sentenced to 22 years in jail.
On the 10th anniversary of Gerbil’s murder in 2020 it was reported how Fraggle had left flowers at the grave with a tribute to his late pal, reading: ‘You are loved and missed every day and will always be in our hearts.’
Spanish cops claim the murders of Eddie Lyons, 46, and Ross Monaghan, 43, were ordered by the Daniel clan but Police Scotland insist this was not the case.
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