TAXI BLAZE THREAT RAP OF COCAINE GANGSTER … ex-Royal Regiment of Scotland lance corporal accused of terrorising Glasgow Private Hire taxi firm staff … thug faces jail over firearms
A FORMER soldier who supplied British Army explosives to the Daniel crime clan was accused of threatening to torch the HQ of Scotland's biggest cab firm.
Martyn Fitzsimmons, 37, allegedly terrorised staff at Glasgow Private Hire (GPH), which is owned by Paisley businessman Stevie Malcolm, 54.
The former lance corporal in the Royal Regiment of Scotland is said to have made the threat in a call to the firm's office in the city's east end in March.
Fitzsimmons faces a lengthy jail term as a senior member of a cocaine gang which police say was "at the top of the chain" in Scotland.
He and eight other men pled guilty to a string of charges involving guns, drugs and violence and will be sentenced in January 2018.
The ex-squaddie was accused of making the call to Malcolm's office along with the attempted murder of Lyons mob thug Ross Monaghan outside a primary school in Penilee, Glasgow, in January.
But in a deal with prosecutors, his not guilty plea to both charges was accepted.
Instead, he pled guilty to two separate firearms charges and having £36,000 of dirty money.
Instead, he pled guilty to two separate firearms charges and having £36,000 of dirty money.
GPH was formed in 1999 by Malcolm, who has amassed an estimated £50million fortune with a £9million mansion in Gleneagles and a collection of supercars.
He has thousands of private hire cars across Scotland and interests in property. But he also has links to numerous criminal underworld figures.
In October, the Sunday Mail revealed he bought a £1.4million stake in GPH from Margaret McGraw, the widow of late drug dealer Tam "The Licensee" McGraw.
In August, new taxis were torched at a Malcolm firm in Chapelhall, Lanarkshire, causing £250,000 worth of damage.
And, three years ago, we watched Malcolm discussing a taxi deal with Steven "Bonzo" Daniel and Mark Richardson, a member of the gang of nine brought to justice this month.
Richardson was convicted of being in possession of a handgun. Daniel is recovering from a machete attack earlier this year.
Fitzsimmons - and other gang members - also have ties to the north Glasgow-based Daniels, whose boss Jamie Daniel died last year.
One source said: "When it emerged that Fitzsimmons threatened to burn down the taxi company, there was confusion given that both he and Malcolm have Daniel connections.
"Maybe it was just a low-level dispute that got out of hand because Fitzsimmons is a hothead or it could point to a deeper split within the Daniel ranks."
Since 2001, the Daniels and Lyons crime syndicates have waged Scotland's deadliest drugs war, as documented in best-selling book Caught in the Crossfire by Russell Findlay.
They include an attack by Daniel hitmen at a garage in Lambhill, Glasgow, which killed Michael Lyons, 21. The two shooters were armed with guns and ammunition stolen from the Army.
Fitzsimmons was later snared supplying army explosives, stolen from a barracks in Kent, to the Daniels.
The shamed soldier, along with one former and three serving members of the Royal Regiment of Scotland’s 5th battalion, the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, were jailed in 2008.
When Mr Justice Akenhead jailed Fitzsimmons for 12 years at Maidstone Crown Court he told him: "You have dishonoured your battalion, your regiment, the army and your country. If the explosives are used by those who wish to harm the people of this country, you will have betrayed them as well."
Last week, Fitzsimmons was back in the dock as a member of Scotland's "most sophisticated" crime gang, who operated in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Prosecutor Alex Prentice QC told the High Court in Glasgow: "Their operation centres on the importation of vast quantities of cocaine. They are at the top of the chain in terms of drugs transactions in Scotland and the UK."
Fitzsimmons was given 300 hours' unpaid work last November after he was convicted of terrorising a woman he thought was his cousin.
He bombarded his victim with letters for 19 months, begging her to have his baby.
A version of this exclusive report by Russell Findlay was first published by the Sunday Mail on December 17, 2017:
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