Major gangland figures 'arrested in Bahrain' months after fleeing Dubai

Police Scotland are trying to verify reports that two major organised crime figures have been arrested in Bahrain - five months after they were released from custody in Dubai.

Steven Lyons and Ross McGill are said to have been arrested by officers in the Gulf nation alongside an unnamed woman.

But attempts to confirm the arrests and the grounds on which they were made have been complicated by the US-Israel War with Iran.

The conflict has resulted in a number of missile and drone attacks in Bahrain and across the region since Saturday.

It has also has made it more difficult to get information through traditional law enforcement channels.

BBC Scotland News has approached the Ministry of Interior in Bahrain and the country's embassy in London for comment .

Lyons and McGill are believed by Police Scotland to be linked to criminality ranging from drug importation to a feud which erupted last year between rival criminal gangs in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Sources previously said both men were "operating at the highest level of organised crime" both at a UK and a global level.

The pair were arrested in Dubai in September alongside Steven Larwood - a known associate of Lyons - and Stephen Jamieson.

But it is understood they were released in October and told to leave the Gulf state with immediate effect.

Jamieson was later extradited to Scotland and has since appeared in court accused of being involved in serious organised crime.

Detectives working on Operation Portaledge, which was set up in response to the gang violence across Scotland's central belt from Glasgow to Edinburgh, have so far made more than 60 arrests.

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

In 2006 he 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.

McGill first became known to police for his activities while a senior member of Rangers ultras group, the Union Bears.

But in March last year he emerged as a key figure in a gangland feud which has been responsible for a wave of violence in the east and west of the country.

BBC Scotland News understands it was triggered by a fall out between McGill and Edinburgh drug dealer Mark Richardson, who is currently in prison.

In May last year, 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.

In the days after the double shooting a Spanish National Police detective said the suspect was a member of the rival Glasgow-based 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.

It is understood the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office has not been approached to provide consular assistance.