SCOTLAND’S most dangerous drug gang is terrorising the underworld with a series of savage kidnappings.
Detectives suspect Kevin Carroll, 29, is ringleader of the mob accused of seizing and torturing rivals for cash, drugs and guns.
The thugs have been nicknamed the “alien abduction” gang because their traumatised victims tell police that they cannot remember anything about their ordeal.
One source said: “Victims disappear from their home at night before they’re found wandering the streets half-naked the next morning. They then tell the police they have no memory of what happened.”
A Sunday Mail investigation today reveals that Carroll – who has been shot twice in attempted hits – and his crew have been linked to at least a dozen similar incidents in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Lanarkshire, and Renfrewshire.
Victims – often linked to rival gangs – are snatched from their homes at gunpoint by the mob, posing as armed police.
They have hoods placed over their heads before being taken to safe houses or disused buildings where they suffer horrific physical and mental torture.
One Glasgow victim – targeted because he was in possession of a stolen Army gun – was threatened with a blow-torch and handgun. Power tools have been used in other attacks.
An innocent neighbour of victim Paul Fleming in High Blantyre, Lanarkshire, was lucky not be hit after the gang took pot shots at him when he tried to intervene.
There have been other cases in Coatbridge and Greenock while a plot was foiled after the gang tried to lure two men to an address in Cumbernauld.
One kidnap victim, who has refused to co-operate with police, told the Sunday Mail: “Gerbil seems to think if you don’t work for him then you’re not going to do it for others.
“He supposedly carries guns five days out of seven and you have to wonder why the police are not going after him.”
The scale of the violence, disregard for public safety and use of firearms and torture is a major concern to Strathclyde Police who are frustrated at victims’ lack of co-operation.
The attacks being linked to the gang include two in Edinburgh when one dealer was robbed of four kilos of cocaine.
Another Asian dealer bought five kilos of coke for £60,000 before it was stolen back by the gang in an ambush.
Another dealer in Glasgow was on a drugs buy when the mob stole four kilos of coke worth up to £50,000 with no violence, just the words: “You’re taxed you bam.”
In another attack a gang member posed as a postman to get inside a house before another three henchmen burst in. The mob threw a kettle of boiling water over the victim.
Another dealer in Balornock, Glasgow, was robbed of £30,000. He was kept in a cupboard for two days and threatened with syringes. Underworld figures – terrified they’re next on the hit list – are angry at the apparent lack of action against Carroll, nicknamed Gerbil.
He has links to millionaire crime boss Jamie Daniel and has been at the centre of Scotland’s bloodiest gangland feud between the rival Daniel and Lyons gangs.
Daniel clan hitmen Raymond Anderson Snr, 48, and James McDonald, 36, were last year jailed for 35 years each for slaying Michael Lyons, 21, in 2006.
In February 2008 Carroll and Raymond Anderson Jnr, 24, were arrested over the abduction at gunpoint of Christopher Logan, 22, from a flat in Springburn, Glasgow.
The gang, who threatened Logan with a blow-torch before dumping him in the street, stole a Heckler & Koch gun and ammunition previously nicked from the Army.
But Logan, later jailed for storing the weapon and drugs, failed to pick out Carroll and Anderson from an ID parade, though Carroll was convicted after being caught with the ammo.
Anderson escaped jail last week after he admitted dealing cocaine. Instead, he was given 240 hours’ community service when he appeared at Ayr Sheriff Court.
One criminal source said: “Most of the targets are small-time dealers who work for other gangs, quite often the Lyons. Gerbil wants to control who deals and where.
“Sometimes the attacks are motivated for other reasons like getting their hands on the Army gun or to target those who may have useful information or are cash rich.”
Carroll was arrested by police probing the triple shooting that resulted in the death of Michael Lyons.
He later faced four charges relating to the stolen Army weapons and ammo but was jailed for 18 months after admitting just one charge.
Details can be revealed for the first time because the judge slapped a reporting ban on the trial at the time.
Carroll has been a key player in the Daniel versus Lyons feud which has resulted in countless shootings, slashings and fire attacks.
Six years ago he was shot – just 10 days before the shooting of Johnny Lyons, 43.
Three years later Carroll survived a second shooting when he and pal Ross Sherlock were gunned down in Auchinairn, Bishopbriggs.
Strathclyde Police said: “We would not discuss any targets and would never discuss any operational activity around them.”