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Gang feud member admits fire attack on beauty salon

News imageCrown Office The fire-damaged Belle Cheveux salon has smashed windows and graffiti on the outside walsCrown Office
The fire-damaged Belle Cheveux salon which was targeted on 6 March

A man has pleaded guilty to wilfully setting fire to a beauty salon linked to an ongoing gang feud in Scotland's central belt.

Logan Carlin, 24, was arrested after witnesses spotted a man throwing a bottle stuffed with a flaming rag into the Belle Cheveux on Albert Street, Leith, on 6 March.

The salon is believed to be part-owned by Mark Richardson, a convicted Edinburgh drug dealer serving a 10-year jail sentence.

Police believe it was the first building targeted in the dispute between groups in the east and west of the country.

Carlin, from Bruntsfield, admitted the fire attack when he appeared at the High Court in Edinburgh via video link from HMP Saughton.

He also pleaded guilty to another charge of wilfully setting fire to DB Auto Services on Milton Street, Edinburgh, 10 days after the salon attack on 16 March.

Judge Lord Summers said the offences were aggravated by links to serious and organised crime.

The judge deferred sentence until a hearing early next year and Carlin was remanded in custody.

A total of 62 people have been arrested as part of Operation Portaledge - the police operation set up to investigate the spate of violent incidents.

The gangland feud has led to assaults, shootings and fire bombings across the east and west of Scotland.

A Scottish man currently based in Dubai is alleged to have started the feud by targeting a crime group led by Mark Richardson.

The attacks later spread across the west of Scotland where there has been rivalry and violence between the Daniel and the Lyons families dating back more than 20 years.

News imageCrown Office Fire-scorched wallpaper surrounds a fire-damaged TV setCrown Office
There was extensive damage inside the salon

Violence raged through Glasgow and Edinburgh during the first half of the year, but incidents appear to have calmed down.

Several people with links to the Daniel family are said to have been targeted during the wave of attacks.

On 31 May, two prominent figures in the Lyons crime group, Eddie Lyons Jnr and Ross Monaghan, were shot dead at a bar in Spain.

Police Scotland has said there is no evidence to suggest that shooting was planned from Scotland.

A number of high-profile gangland figures were arrested in Dubai in September, but have since been released.