Story of the Govan Kalashnikov

Simon McLean is a former undercover police officer who worked with the Serious Crime Squad in Glasgow, where he pursued drug dealers, gangsters, terrorists, murderers and paedophiles.

Simon’s recently released The Ten Percent, a tell-all book that gives you a very rare insight into that world and details what The Ten Percent of police officers are willing to do to make sure those people they’re fighting against, are brought down. Simon tells the story of the Govan Kalashnikov in the daily Glaswegian a brand new daily blog for the city of Glasgow.

In 1993, Strathclyde Police ran a six-month operation designed to get as many firearms off our streets as possible. In conjunction with a gun amnesty, when members of the public could hand weapons in at their local cop shop, no questions asked, we had two detectives in each division designated to focus exclusively on retrieving illegal guns.

I headed up this mission in what was G Division, based at the old Orkney Street Station in Govan. designated to focus exclusively on retrieving illegal guns. I headed up this mission in what was G Division, based at the old Orkney Street Station in Govan. I worked with Jimmy Miller from the Pollok office and we ran riot.

We recovered sixty-seven firearms of all varieties, the highest in the force, and cleared up numerous crimes in the progress. Guns ranging from high powered air rifles, low and high calibre rifles, hand guns, shotguns of every length and variety, imitation firearms that are just as effective as the real thing when pointed in your face

But the prize capture was a working Kalashnikov.

Our tactics were very simple, as always. When you make a ned’s life miserable by breathing down his neck, he’ll do anything to shake you off. This was a tactic we had recently seen the legendary detective, Joe Jackson, use when murder enquiries were grinding to a halt due to the wall of silence often met in schemes.

When no one wants to speak to the police, mainly because the last thing they want to be is a Crown witness in a murder trial. They don’t have a reason to get involved. Much easier to lie low and say nothing.

Joe would muster the enquiry team, supplement it with plain clothes and uniform cops from any source possible and saturate the targeted scheme, with instructions to use all of our powers to check identities, stop and search and book anyone for the slightest offence. This always resulted in a quick stream of information, simply because, with movement restricted, no one with an outstanding warrant of any description could venture outdoors. Vehicles with as much as a light out were grounded. You couldn’t even kick a ball in the street. The steady flow of minor contraband, and certainly drugs, was severely restricted. In short, life was 308 coming to a standstill, or certainly lowlife. There was now a good reason to speak to the police.

Jimmy and I did exactly the same, only on a much smaller scale. Although the police nationally were only just beginning to acknowledge the severity of the drugs problem (ten years too late), and how it pervaded every aspect of criminal activity, we knew that the world of drug dealing was the sure route to everything we wanted to achieve, not only because of its propensity in Govan at that time, but because everyone knows that junkies will ‘shop their granny’ in order to stay on the street, using.

Through this process of harassment and blackmail, the lines of enquiry were completely endless, as one small result almost always leads to another, as you work your way up the supply chain and onto other small-time street dealers. This was how we came to be offered a Kalashnikov rifle, but at the cost of a thousand pounds.

Simon McLean today 

We waited three days to get any money, and in the end had to settle for two-hundred pounds from the police, after an embarrassing and tedious series of negotiations including threats, promises, and everything in between. The deal was off several times, but by the time I had made up some of the gap with fags, booze and impossible promised favours in the future, we were told where to pick up the weapon: in a bin behind a pub at lunchtime.

I travelled with my then-DI, Pat Durkin, and we returned with an authentic Kalashnikov machine gun in the boot, cheesy grins across our coupons. This was a very good result.

We took it straight to the super’s office upstairs at the old Orkney Street Office, where the whole CID department quickly congregated to marvel at this tool of destruction. There were numerous AFOs (Authorised Firearm Officers) there, but none of us had seen such a firearm in real life.

Read Simon McLean's Book https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CM9BFH1R

Crime Time Inc is not just another True Crime Podcast - Its a portal to the past Where you'll hear stories from retired police officers who were on the frontlines of investigations, facing challenges that tested their skills, intuition, and determination. These tales will transport to the heart of the action, revealing  the unvarnished truth behind the headlines. We're delving into a diverse range of  historical cases that continue to intrigue and haunt us to this day. 

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