Suspected Scots crime boss wanted in UK and Spain arrested in Bali
A Scottish man described as a senior figure in an international crime syndicate was arrested shortly after arriving on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, authorities said on Tuesday.
Steven Lyons, 45, was taken into custody by immigration officers at the Ngurah Rai airport after he arrived from Singapore on Saturday, Untung Widiyatmoko, head of Interpol in Indonesia, said.
He had been flagged by the immigration system as the subject of an Interpol red notice issued at Spain’s request. A red notice is an alert issued by Interpol at the instance of a member nation for police worldwide to arrest a suspect for extradition.
Investigators said this was Mr Lyons’s second trip to Bali and that he was assessing the Indonesian drug trafficking market.
Mr Lyons leads the Lyons Clan, which originated in Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire, and is locked in a violent feud with the rival Glasgow-based Daniel group.
Mr Lyons, wanted in Spain and the UK in connection with organised crime, drug trafficking and money laundering, would be extradited to Spain on Wednesday, Mr Widiyatmoko said.
Mr Lyons was put on Spain’s wanted list in 2024 following a murder case there. Bali police chief Daniel Adityajaya said the arrest was part of a joint investigation involving Spanish and Scottish police.
He said Mr Lyons was alleged to be the leader of “a large-scale transnational criminal organisation involved in narcotics trafficking and money laundering”.
According to Scottish media, Mr Lyons survived a 2006 shooting in Glasgow that killed his cousin and later moved to Spain before settling in Dubai.
His brother, Eddie Lyons Jr, and an associate, Ross Monaghan, were killed in a suspected gangland shooting in Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol in southern Spain last May. The pair had been watching the Champions League final before they were targeted by a lone gunman.
On Monday, media reports emerged that Mr Lyons’s partner Amanda Lyons had been arrested in Dubai. “We are aware of the arrest of a Scottish woman in Dubai and we are working closely with European partners,” a Police Scotland spokesperson said.
According to Mr Widiyatmoko, Mr Lyons’s crime ring used shell companies for money laundering in Spain, Scotland, England, Dubai, Qatar, Bahrain, and Turkey.
He said that police in Scotland and Spain last week carried out raids in connection with Mr Lyons’s case, resulting in eight arrests in Scotland and five in Spain.
Bugie Kurniawan, head of the Ngurah Rai Immigration Office, said the arrest served as a message that Bali “will never be a safe haven for international fugitives”.
“This achievement demonstrates that immigration surveillance in Bali is effective, integrated, and responsive to transnational threats,” said Felucia Sengky Ratna, head of the Regional Office of the Directorate General of Immigration, Bali.
Mr Lyons arrived in Bali with two companions believed to still be on the island, Mr Kurniawan said, adding that Interpol had identified them as members of the same criminal cartel but they were not on any arrest warrants.
