Police target 900 Glasgow gangsters: 48 active gangs identified operating across city

And the mafia hoods have infiltrated all communities across Glasgow, East Renfrewshire, and East Dunbartonshire, with the gangs touching every city, town and village.

Scotland's biggest city is currently home to 900 gangsters working across 48 underworld mobs.

Rackets include drugs, prostitution, money laundering, tobacco smuggling, counterfeit goods, extortion and the use of legitimate businesses across all sectors.

However, police arrested 572 suspected gangsters, over the past year, in a series of blows to the city's underworld.

During the last year, prosecutors also used the tough Proceeds of Crime Act - POCA - to seize more than £13m in illegal assets and cripple gangsters financially.

Detective Superintendent Andy Gunn, head of the Organised Crime Unit in Glasgow, told the Evening Times: "Serious and organised criminals are driven by power and profit.

"All they care about is making money and the consequences of crimes, such as drug dealing and human trafficking, are irrelevant to them.

"They will identify a weakness in an individual or community and capitalise on that.

"There is absolutely no conscious involved in what do, they don't care about the risk or harm to other people. They only care about profit."

The Mafia-style network of underworld gangs, which often work together, deal in everything from drugs and human trafficking to taxi firms and tanning salons.

And the shocking scale and wealth of organised crime in Glasgow can today be revealed by the Evening Times.

Detectives rank the gangs in terms of the threat, risk and harm they pose to communities, in a bid to prevent serious and organised crime from infiltrating people's lives.

Mr Gunn's objective has always been to ensure that his detectives don't just chase organised criminals - he wants police to be ahead of them.

He added: "Organised crime is present in every community in Glasgow.

"And in all of those communities, there are different issues which need to be tackled."

Senior detectives believe the public are the key to stop bankrolling gangsters and put them behind bars.

Mr Gunn said: "Police staff, uniformed officers and detectives are all have a role to play in fighting serious and organised crime.

"But, to really make a difference, the public must engage with us.

"Serious and organised crime groups are sophisticated and share resources, they work together.

"And in order to beat them, we have to do the same.

"A lot of the work police do around serious and organised crime is hidden.

"But we are doing a lot of work which does reduce the impact if serious and organised crime and reduce the treat those involved pose.

"We are reliant on information coming from the public and that's why we have such a commitment to community policing in Glasgow.

"Small information gathered from the public by uniformed officers and our partners piece together to help build a bigger picture about the activities of serious and organised criminals."

Drugs, including heroin and cannabis, are the primary source of income but many of the gang maximise their earnings by being "multi-commodity".

Some are involved in money laundering, human trafficking, and prostitution.

An alarming number also have access to weapons, including firearms.

But Mr Gunn told how underworld groups will also prey on the vulnerable in Glasgow's communities to make quick cash.

He explained: "Lots of people are hard up and short of cash, those identified in serious and organised crime will identify and then prey on this.

"Smokers might be interested in cheap counterfeit cigarettes.

"But buying them isn't just a harmless bargain, that money is going into the hands of organised crime.

"Those cigarettes are harmful and are being shipped into this country by organised crime groups.

"I understand the temptation is there, and that's what makes these groups money. They see a need, something that is essential and they exploit it."

Mr Gunn also revealed how criminals involved in serious crimes, including drug dealing, are being targeted for more minor offences, such as noise nuisance and motoring offences.

"We will do whatever we can to disrupt criminal's activities," he said.

Officers are adopting an 'Al Capone approach' - if they can't catch the conmen in the act, they will tackle them for other offences, including tax offences, just like American authorities did with the mobster in 1930s Chicago.

Now, Glasgow's top cops hope to use the data they have gathered to take on crime lords - many of whom believe they are untouchable.

Mr Gunn said: "The money made from serious and organised crime funds their lifestyle, their status and enhances their reputation.

"Our job is to put a stop to this and use our gathered intelligence to stop the spread of criminal networks in Glasgow."