By Jeff Burbank It was the first week of January 1973. Frank Matthews and his young girlfriend had just spent the holidays in Las Vegas and were about to board a flight to Los Angeles. In the previous several years, Matthews had made many trips to Las Vegas, carrying suitcases full of cash to be secretly laundered at casinos for a fee of 15 to 18 percent. This time, federal drug enforcement agents were waiting and placed him and the woman under arrest at McCarran International Airport. Two weeks before, U.S. prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York, had issued an arrest warrant for Matthews, the top black drug kingpin in America whose heroin and cocaine trafficking gang of mostly African-American dealers extended to 21 states on the Eastern Seaboard. He was charged with trying to sell about 40 pounds of cocaine in Miami from April to September 1972, a small fraction of the drugs he’d pushed since 1968. The feds believed Matthews had millions in currency stashed away in safety deposit bo...
It was said that the gangs moving in were too scared to try to take on Glasgow crimelords and decided the capital was a “safer” bet.
Cocaine was seen as the perfect drug for high rollers living life in the fast lane and when it hit Scotland like a blizzard it sparked off a war that continues to this very day.
In the 70s and 80s the white substance dubbed “Colombian marching powder” was fashionable among entertainers and business people. It gave them energy and provided a “high” that kept them on the “up”.
Nightclubs and pubs were awash with coke stuffed in rolled-up banknotes as stressed-out workers chased the euphoric high the drug provided.
By the 90s it was no longer just the drug of choice for the rich and famous and was being trafficked across the world at staggering rates and was accessible to anyone with a habit.
Desperate to cash in on the lucrative trade in Scotland’s capital city, a Somalian drug gang from London moved in and took on Edinburgh 's crime lords in a bid to edge them out.
It was said that the gangs moving in were too scared to try to take on Glasgow crimelords and decided the capital was a “safer” bet but they didn’t reckon on the police and local gangsters working in tandem to rid the city of the gangs they saw as dangerous interlopers.
The Somalis were raking in about £15,000 a week when they descended on estates in the city.
Their gang members lived the high life on the profits, splashing out £100 a time on bottles of expensive vodka and cognac in Edinburgh nightclubs.
They had weapons, including a deadly Mac-10, which could fire more than 1000 rounds a minute, and they weren’t afraid to use them.
Also battling for a share of Edinburgh’s busy drug scene was the notorious Yardies – mostly Jamaican gangsters who had moved into the city from London and Birmingham – who had a reputation for being as violent as the Mafia and the Triads in controlling their trade.
Known for their lavish lifestyles, swanky cars, designer gold jewellery, the Yardies flaunted their wealth as well as their weapons – automatic guns were a favourite.
Throw in local gangsters and Edinburgh was teetering on the brink of all-out war.
But the Yardies weren’t satisfied with just supplying powder cocaine – they were hell-bent on hooking Scots on the highly addictive crack cocaine which is cheaper and faster acting.
In 2001, Edinburgh cops knew they were facing an uphill battle when a gang of Yardies moved into Leith before branching out across Edinburgh.
Their first inkling they had a major problem was when they found a crack consignment in Muirhouse in November of that year.
The Yardies’ fearsome reputation for gunning down anyone in their path had local drug barons so worried deals were cut to stay off each other’s “patches”.
Local prostitutes, terrified of saying no, were then used to distribute the drug to clients. The women knew rapes, shootings and kidnaps were carried out daily in typical Yardie areas of England.
A squad of 30 cops was tasked with identifying and stopping the ringleaders in an effort to clamp down on the gang’s takeover bid.
It took Edinburgh cops five months to smash the ring and seize thousands of pounds worth of drugs after
identifying the seven hardcore gangsters behind Scotland’s explosion of crack.
Two men ended up convicted and imprisoned while the other gang members turned tail and retreated back to England or Jamaica.
But there was one Scottish city where they were able to be well established before police could gain any traction – Aberdeen.
The city was seen as a prime location because of its wealth in 1997 – lots of disposable income and an already dangerous relationship with heroin.
Police reasoned drug addicts would not have the money to spend on crack as well as heroin but the dealers persisted and created a market.
By 2003, the city known as the “oil capital of Europe” was struggling with the grip of crack cocaine and the misery it brings.
It was estimated that 95 per cent of Aberdeen’s heroin addicts were also using crack. In 2010, the Brum Yardies tried again in Edinburgh but again their attempts were thwarted by police and more than 30 suspects were busted in dramatic raids across the capital.
As for the Somali gangs, their desire to be the drug kingpins of Scotland descended into all-out war – among themselves.
And it ended with the son of a Muslim cleric being shot with a Mac-10 machine gun.
The slaying of Mohammed Abdi was the bloody finale of a bitter dispute between factions of the gang.
It was 11pm on May 25, 2013, when Abdi and his cohorts were contacted by phone to meet in the Lochend area of Edinburgh to resolve the feud.
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