Gangster Ian “Blink” MacDonald has claimed one of Scotland’s most notorious gangland feuds began over a stolen drug stash.
The convicted bank robber said Paul Ferris, 58, asked him to sell a consignment worth tens of thousands of pounds which actually belonged to Arthur Thompson snr.
MacDonald, 60, said the war between Ferris and Thompson, nicknamed The Godfather, began when the betrayal emerged.
Ferris had been a trusted enforcer for the Glasgow crime kingpin who had links to London underworld bosses the Kray twins.
But the pair fell out in the 1980s, resulting in a feud that resulted in several murders.
MacDonald said Ferris failed to “clue him up” that the drugs were Thompson’s. His ex-pal Ferris was serving a prison sentence in Glasgow’s Barlinnie at the time, he claimed.
However, Thompson found out about their deal and “summoned” MacDonald to his home, dubbed the Ponderosa, in the city’s Provanmill.
Ferris last night accused his former friend MacDonald of “inventing” the claims.
MacDonald said: “He (Thompson) said, ‘Have you been to see Paul in prison?’.
“I said, ‘Aye, I’ve been to see him’. He said, ‘Did he give you anything or is he going to give you anything?’.
“Paul’s not clued me up ... or I’d have just smothered it. But Thompson had ears and eyes
all over.
“I said, ‘Aye, he did, he gave me this large amount’. I just blabbered.”
He said he and Thompson then went to visit Ferris in jail.
MacDonald added: “I still wasn’t happy, I felt as if I was betraying him.
“He should’ve told me the truth from the beginning – I’m thinking it’s his.
“This is the beginning of the end, this is the start of the trouble where people were getting killed. This is the start of it. I don’t say that lightly.
“We went in, I’m dreading it. Paul looked at me, his face was a picture, as if to say, ‘Why the f*** are you up with him?’.
“Mr Thompson saw Paul as a son. Young Arthur was a disgrace. He saw Paul as the son he never had.
“I felt as if I’d done wrong to Paul. Mr Thompson came out and said, ‘Does he think I’m sewn up the back?’.
“He said, ‘That’s my stuff’, admitting he’s a drug dealer. In the car park, I gave him his money. He said, ‘Listen, son, can you sell the rest of that stuff?’.
“I went, ‘Aye’. Sold it. He was amazed, I sold it right quick. There was a lot of money. Tens of thousands, even more than that. I sold it and took my cut out it.”
MacDonald made the claims on his Blink and You’ll Miss It podcast.
The fallout between Ferris and Thompson snr has been linked to the fatal shooting of Arthur “Fat Boy” Thompson jnr, who was murdered outside his dad’s home in 1991.
Bobby Glover and Joe “Bananas” Hanlon – associates of Ferris – were found shot dead inside a car on the day of the funeral.
MacDonald said Ferris forgave him for telling Thompson snr about the drugs when he was released from prison – and declared war on his mentor.
He said: “He (Ferris) said, ‘Listen, I should’ve told you I was f*****g with him’.
“I said, ‘I wish you f*****g would’ve...’
“He said, ‘It doesn’t matter ... going to war and that’s it’.
“Bobby Glover and Joe ‘Bananas’ Hanlon, who I knew through Paul, they got took out and that was Mr Thompson.
“No doubt about it. He showed who was the real Godfather because his son got murdered.”
Ferris was found not guilty of killing Thompson jnr after a trial at the High Court in Glasgow in 1992.
Glover, 31, and Hanlon, 23, were blamed for helping gun down Thompson jnr outside his home. No one else has ever been charged in connection with his death.
Ferris last night denied the claims. He said his feud with the Thompson family started when they set him up over a drugs bust in Rothesay. And he insisted MacDonald and Thompson snr had never visited him in jail together.
He said: “My troubles with Arthur Thompson snr and Arthur Thompson jnr are historically mentioned in a variety of different publications.
“I saw a warrant that was issued before I arrived on the island. I never knew that until I went to trial and got defence productions.
“I never could point the finger towards whether it was Thompson senior or junior.
“Only two people knew where I was going.
“I never heard Arthur Thompson snr talking about drugs. There’s a multitude of stories Blink is inventing to generate funds, that’s all it is.”
Ferris has published several books about his life of crime.
Thompson snr died of a heart attack in 1993, aged 61.
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