Scotland's runaway gangsters fled abroad using a passport scam in which they assumed the identities of drunks and drug addicts, it has been claimed in court.
Investigators told a trial how some of the country’s most wanted men were able to escape justice by getting their hands on genuine UK passports from a gang of alleged English fraudsters.
Killer Christopher Hughes, cocaine kingpins Barry and James Gillespie, and hitman Jordan Owens were among those who got hold of Latvian passports under the scheme, police said.
It was claimed Hughes used a phoney passport to evade capture in 2018 by providing an alias to officers, after being arrested over a fight in a Portuguese kebab shop.
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