Crime boss Steven Lyons set to be deported from Bali to Spain

One of Scotland's most high-profile gangland figures is set be deported to Spain days after his airport arrest in Bali.

Steven Lyons was taken into custody on Saturday, shortly after he arrived at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport on a flight from Singapore.

The development came on the same day his wife, Amanda Lyons, was arrested in Dubai.

The couple are wanted over offences allegedly committed in Spain.

Police on the Indonesian island have confirmed Lyons - who was the subject of an Interpol alert - will be deported on Wednesday.

Untung Widyatmoko, secretary of Interpol's Indonesia bureau, told reporters that Lyons' criminal group operated in countries including Spain, Scotland, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Turkey.

Officers on Bali also confirmed they were searching for two associates who arrived with Lyons but managed to evade detection.

On Friday, a joint Scottish-Spanish operation targeted alleged members of the Lyons group in a series of simultaneous raids in Bellshill, Glasgow, Gartcosh, Whitburn, Caldercruix, Cumbernauld, Coatbridge, Barcelona and the Malaga area.

Lyons has his hands tied together as he is led from the detention centre by two officers — Lyons wearing an orange prisoner's suit with his hands bound [EPA]

Steven Lyons is the head of the Lyons clan, which has been involved in a bloody feud with the rival Daniel group for more than 20 years.

It was reported earlier this month that Lyons had been arrested in Bahrain - five months after being released from custody in Dubai.

But in the weeks that followed, details of his whereabouts were shrouded in mystery - until he stepped off a flight in Indonesia.

After being stopped in the international arrivals area, Lyons was handed over to I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport Area Resort Police.

In a statement on Saturday, the Ngurah Rai Immigration Office said: "Based on intelligence data, SL is strongly suspected of being the leader of an international criminal organisation.

"He is suspected of being the mastermind behind the operation of several fictitious companies and of being involved in money laundering."

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: "We are aware of the arrest of a Scottish nominal in Bali and we are working closely with European partners."

In 2006, Steven Lyons survived a shooting at a garage in Lambhill, in the north of Glasgow, which claimed the life of his cousin, Michael Lyons.

He later moved to Spain before settling in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

Lyons' criminal alliances include ties to the Dubai-based Kinahan crime group.

He is understood to have forged a relationship with founder Christy's son, former boxing promoter Daniel Kinahan, while living in the Costa del Sol.

Stephen Dempster, producer of Kinahan: The True Story of Ireland's Mafia, previously told BBC Scotland's Scotcast that by the mid-2010s the Lyons group had become bigger and wealthier by tapping into the cartel's global network.

Last May, Steven Lyons' brother, Eddie Lyons Jnr, and Ross Monaghan were shot dead in a beachfront bar in Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol.

Both men had spent the evening watching the Champions League final before they were targeted by a lone gunman.

Michael Riley, 44, from Liverpool, has been accused by Spanish police of the murders.

He had challenged an extradition bid but the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed in October that he had given his consent to be taken to Spain to face prosecution.

In the days after the double shooting a Spanish National Police detective said the suspect was a member of the rival Daniel gang.

But Police Scotland have maintained there is nothing to suggest the murders in Spain are linked to the ongoing gang war or that it was planned in Scotland.

The raids on Friday resulted in eight arrests in Scotland and five in Spain.

On Monday nine men appeared in court following the joint Scottish-Spanish investigation into organised crime.

Seven face drug charges while one was charged with conspiracy and assault.

Police Scotland said the inquiry pre-dated last year's gangland feud in central Scotland which resulted in a series of assaults, shootings and firebombings.

A number of properties were set alight in Edinburgh and the surrounding areas in March before the attacks spread to the west at the beginning of April.

The force launched Operation Portaledge in response and it has so far resulted in more than 60 arrests.

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