A Scottish ex-mobster has been 'clean' from crime for over 20 years after being spooked by MI5.
Paul Ferris was one of the country's most feared men during a criminal career which saw him walk free from a murder charge and was jailed for gun-running. The gangster also was also known as a trusted associate to Glasgow's own 'Godfather' Arthur Thompson who had links to the infamous Kray twins.
Ferris forged his own links down south and was sent to prison in the 90's. Now the 59-year-old has revealed it was the gun-running case that inspired him to turn his life around.
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As the Daily Record reports, the mobster-turned-author explained that he was tailed by MI5 in an operation which resulted in him serving time in a London prison.
Ferris revealed he only found out about the surveillance when his lawyer brought boxes of documents to the jail.
He said: “When I saw all the MI5 stuff on it – when you’re involved in criminality, you don’t think you come to the attention of these people.
“What I saw, what I heard and what I read, I thought, ‘I’ll get on with my sentence, I’m putting my hands up, and I’m going out and I’m going straight’.”
Now out of prison, Ferris has led a crime-free life for 21 years and has shared that he is working on a new book about his two decades as a clean-living citizen.
The Glasgow mobster was known as a key ally of Thompson for years but in the 80s the pair fell out, resulting in a bloody feud where Thompson’s son, Arthur Junior, was horrifically executed outside his dad’s notorious Ponderosa home in Provanmill.
Ferris was found not guilty of the murder after a trial at the High Court in Glasgow in 1992.
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