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A high-powered Skorpion submachine gun has been seized in a secret operation to stop the assassination of a crime family member.

Undercover detectives seized the Czech-made weapon which was to be used in the murder.

It was found during a dramatic swoop on a car in Fernbank Street in Springburn, Glasgow, on Thursday night.

Officers also found a silencer and ammunition when they stopped the vehicle’s driver at 10pm.

A Skorpion was used by Islamic State terrorist Amedy Coulibaly when he murdered five people including a policeman in Paris, in January, 2015.

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Sources close to the investigation believe the gun was about to be used by a Daniel clan hitman within days.

They believe a key member of the Lyons organised crime group was the intended target.

(Image: Sunday Mail)

A 44-year-old man who was driving the car was detained in connection with the find and is expected to appear at Glasgow Sheriff Court tomorrow.

Two stolen high-performance cars, which were also to be used in the murder bid, were also recovered.

A Mercedes AMG Coupe and an Audi Q3 were seized by police in Hughenden Gardens in the west end of Glasgow last week. The vehicles were stolen from the Colinton and Newington areas of Edinburgh last month by a gang working alongside the Daniel family.

Detectives believe the stolen cars were left in the upmarket Hyndland area so they would not attract attention.

(Image: Spindrift)

The covert operation’s success is part of a hard-hitting proactive police crackdown on organised crime in the Glasgow area.

It is aimed at the deadly feud between the Daniel and Lyons clans that has seen several people shot or maimed this year. The foiled assassination plan is believed to be a revenge bid for the brutal machete attack on 37-year-old Daniel crime clan boss Steven “Bonzo” Daniel.

(Image: UGC)

His face was mutilated by attackers when he was trapped in his car following a high-speed chase. Daniel is the nephew of dead gangster Jamie Daniel, one of the country’s most feared crime bosses until he died of cancer last year.

Police Scotland confirmed on Friday they had recovered the gun, silencer, ammunition and stolen cars, as part of their ongoing “disruptive strategies” against organised crime.

(Image: Daily Record)

Detective Chief Superintendent Gerry McLean, head of Police Scotland’s Organised Crime and Counter Terrorism unit said: “There is little doubt that in the last 24 hours, we have stopped a significant amount of violence taking place with people possibly being shot and killed and endangering the wider safety of the public.

“This clearly shows our commitment to tackling organised crime in our communities.”

Police Scotland launched a special taskforce of 70 officers last month in a bid to tackle the feud between the Lyons and the Daniel gangs and other organised crime groups.

They say the gun seizure also displays their determination to take the fight to organised criminals and not just to react to incidents of violence as they happen.

(Image: UGC)

McLean added: “We’re using both open engagement and covert techniques against organised crime groups.

“The firearm, silencer and ammunition will be examined for DNA and subjected to ballistic tests at the Scottish Crime Campus in Gartcosh to identify who has been using them.

“We’ll also call on the services of the National Ballistics Intelligence Service in Birmingham, which has special expertise in firearms, to carry out more detailed testing.

(Image: UGC)

“Both the cars recovered will also be subject to extensive tests including DNA that will hopefully help us identify those who were involved in their theft.”

McLean said that his team have also recovered around 30 stolen high-performance cars in the last few months in Glasgow, Edinburgh and elsewhere. It is feared that some were also to be used in crimes of violence between underworld rivals.

Last week, Police Scotland Chief Constable Phil Gormley told the Scottish Police Authority: “Police Scotland continues to take forward a disruptive strategy including high-visibility patrols, disruption teams, Threat to Life warnings, vehicle stops and searches.

(Image: Getty)

“The robust response instigated by Police Scotland has resulted in key members of the organised crime groups having either been disrupted due to police attention or remanded in prison.

“The service expects to provide further evidence of its impact in this area in the coming months.”

Last month, we revealed how Crime queen Annette Daniel spent more than £50,000 on a desert summit with her badly injured son Steven Daniel and other associates in the five-star Jumeirah Beach Hotel in Dubai.

The Daniel gang met in the desert to plot revenge for the machete attack on Steven Daniel and other family members.

(Image: Spindrift)

It has been claimed the Daniels have offered as much as £200,000 to anyone who will help them to get revenge on his attackers.

The Lyons gang are headed by Steven Lyons, who has been living in the Costa Del Sol since 2006.

The turf war between the rival organised crime groups has lasted almost two decades – but it erupted in January when Lyons gang member Ross Monaghan was shot in the shoulder.

Several members of the Daniel gang have been targeted.

In February, Francis “Fraggle” Green had his home in Milton of Campsie damaged in a gun attack.

(Image: UGC)

The £15k murder machine that fire 1000 rounds in a minute

The Skorpion is a deadly rapid-fire machine pistol developed in 1959 in Bratislava in the former communist Czechoslovakia.

It was originally used by the Czech security and special forces.

It has been used by various terrorist groups including the IRA, Irish National Liberation Army and the Italian Red Brigade.

The latter used the Škorpion in the 1978 kidnapping and murder of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro.

Islamic State fanatic Amedy Coulibaly used a Skorpion to murder municipal police officer Clarissa Jean-Philippe in Paris in January 2015. The weapon has been used by police in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya and by North Korean security services.

Crime gangs in Britain are increasingly arming themselves with Skorpions and have been known to pay up to £15,000 for one.

The guns, which can fire 1000 rounds a minute, were used by robbers in the £53million Kent Securitas depot heist in 2006 – Britain’s biggest cash robbery.

London police believe two murders have been carried out by gangsters armed with military-grade Skorpion weapons in the past eight months.