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cover of episode Glasgow's Ice Cream Wars: Drugs, Police Framing, and Soft Serve

Glasgow's Ice Cream Wars: Drugs, Police Framing, and Soft Serve

2022/1/31
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The Underworld Podcast

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The episode introduces the background of Glasgow's Ice Cream Wars, detailing how ice cream vans became a lifeline for the city's poorest, and later, a front for gangsters dealing drugs and other illegal goods.

Shownotes Transcript

As badly-planned 1960s projects pushed Glasgow's poorest people to the city's fringes, ice cream vans became a lifeline, delivering food, drink and cigarettes. Before long, gangsters got in on the act, packing out vans with drugs, guns and stolen goods. A war between the city's hell-bent, crucifying 'Godfather' and pretenders to his throne ensued. But it was mostly beer-money "frighteners" and smashed windows. Until somebody committed mass murder, and sent the city into a tailspin. What Glasgow's underworld did next would define Scottish crime for decades. What the police did, might just be worse.

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