More than 200 specialist police officers , including elite Colombian detectives, have joined the hunt to find fugitive cocaine kingpins James and Barry Gillespie.
The brothers have been accused of heading Scotland’s biggest and richest organised crime gang.
The search for the pair is being co-ordinated from Europol’s HQ in the Hague in the Netherlands, the Sunday Mail can reveal.
Officers involved in the global search include detectives from 48 countries across Europe
as well as crime fighters from the USA, including the FBI, Australia and Canada.
The team is also made up of police officers from Colombia, which supplies most of the world’s cocaine.
Europol said its international group of investigators – called liaison officers – work 24 hours a day analysing information coming in from across the world from law enforcement agencies.
It is then fed into a central database, which Police Scotland officers can access. Any sightings or new intelligence on the Gillespies’ whereabouts will be flagged up to detectives based in Glasgow.
Three Gillespie associates – James White, 41, Christopher Hughes, 30, and Jordan Owen, 25 – are also wanted on European arrest warrants.
We told last week how the Gillespies – thought to have fled their bolthole in Portugal to hide out in Brazil – were wanted for flooding Scotland with large quantities of cocaine and firearms.
Europol spokeswoman Tine Hollevoet said: “A message will have been sent out to all the member states with the names of these people asking them, ‘Do you have anything on these guys?’ Anyone from Scotland can get in touch with us and access our databases to see if there is anything new on the five men.
“If the five are stopped by police anywhere in Europe and beyond, they can check the database to see if there is information on them. They’ll find details of the arrest warrants and contact us.
“Our job is then to bring everyone from the countries involved together. This can happen very quickly.
“We can arrange for officers from Police Scotland to travel out, if need be, to the relevant country. Europol also pays for travel expenses and other costs.”
The Gillespies – nicknamed The Brothers – were based in the Algarve for about a decade but police have admitted they do not know where they are now. It is thought they keep in touch with family and associates using encrypted mobile phones.
The Gillespies are believed to be behind a massive criminal network that stretches from Scotland to South America. They have been blamed for a string of violent attacks, including the attempted murder and abduction of a drug dealer who owed them cash.
Hollevoet added: “Most crimes are global these days and everyone here speaks to each other. Someone from the UK liaison team can go into the office of a Dutch or Colombian police officer at any time to share information. It makes the exchange of intelligence much easier.
“We have more than 200 liaison officers in the building from 48 countries. There are also representatives from more than 400 European law enforcement agencies as well as 20
from the USA.
“Crime now has no borders. If there’s a new lead, we can bring investigators together very quickly.
“The Colombians take part for obvious reasons and we work very well together when it comes to drug-related issues. We also have an agreement with Brazil to exchange strategic information.”
All five men are wanted by detectives from Operation Escalade – a clampdown on organised crime in Scotland.
Gillespie associates David Sell, 51, Barry O’Neill, 38, Anthony Woods, 45, Francis Mulligan, 42, Michael Bowman, 31, Mark Richardson, 31, Gerard Docherty, 43, Steven McArdle, 35, and Martyn Fitzsimmons, 38, were convicted after admitting a string of serious charges at the High Court in Glasgow last year.
Owen is wanted in connection with the murder of Jamie Lee in Glasgow’s Castlemilk in 2017.
He is also suspected of stabbing and shooting former Cambuslang Rangers manager Paul McColl in February 2018 and slashing criminal lawyer Joe Shields. McColl is claimed to have been a former associate of the Gillespies.
Shields was attacked outside his office, near Glasgow Sheriff Court, last July, having represented Sell.
White, whose nickname is the Don, is alleged to have arranged meetings between the Gillespies and their associates and has links to Benidorm in Spain. He is also suspected of
importing drugs into Scotland.
Hughes, 30, was with criminal Martin Kok when he was shot dead outside a brothel in the Dutch town of Laren in 2016.
It is believed Hughes was in the Netherlands to discuss a deal involving encrypted mobile phones. He is also suspected of drug importation.
All three are believed to be hiding in mainland Europe.
The Gillespies, originally from Rutherglen, near Glasgow, call themselves property developers.
Sources say they worked for drug dealer Stephen Docherty before he fell to his death from a building in the mid-90s. They are thought to have taken over his operations before
leaving Scotland.
The Brothers were implicated in the murder of Glasgow drug dealer Martin Toner in 2004.
Barry, 41, is said to use the alias Eamon Fitzpatrick, while James, 45, is known to call himself James Gardener.
