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Welsh Family Glasgow: The Crime Dynasty Nobody Talks About

Blood & Concrete

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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 The Welsh Family Glasgow story is one of the most overlooked chapters in Scottish criminal history. The Welsh Family Glasgow operated across three generations — from the razor war streets of the 1960s through the Ferris years of the 1990s to a multi-million pound heroin empire dismantled in 2013.

🔍 In this video we trace the full sixty-year history of the Welsh criminal dynasty — their feud with Arthur Thompson Sr, their violent collision with Paul Ferris, and the father and son operation that ended with 32 combined years in a Scottish courtroom.

⚖️ This is not a story about famous names. It is a story about the family that operated alongside every major figure in Glasgow's underworld and outlasted most of them — until a six-month police investigation brought everything down.

🎙️ Every chapter of this story connects directly to the cases you already know — Thompson, Ferris, McGraw, Blackhill. The Welsh Family were present in all of it. This is the thread that connects them.

📍 If you want more Glasgow crime history told straight — no glamour, no mythology — subscribe to Blood and Concrete right now and hit the bell for every new video.

🆕 We also just launched a brand new channel — Glasgow Noir — covering Scottish crime from a completely different angle. Court cases, investigations, miscarriages of justice. Subscribe here: @glasgownoirtv

💬 Drop a comment below. Did you know about the Welsh Family before this video? Which generation do you think was the most dangerous? Let us know.

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Timestamps
0:00 — Introduction: The Family Glasgow Forgot
3:30 — Glasgow in the 1950s and 1960s: The City Before the Schemes
7:00 — Slum Clearances and the Birth of the Schemes
11:30 — Patrick Welsh and Arthur Thompson Sr: The Original Feud
17:00 — Rita Thompson 1969: The Attack That Created a Debt
23:00 — The Welsh Brothers of Blackhill: Martin George and Henry
24:30 — Paul Ferris and the Welsh Brothers: How It Started
26:00 — The 1980s Heroin Economy Changes Everything
27:00 — Ferris Takes Revenge: The Attack on the Welsh Clan
28:30 — The Third Generation: Christopher Welsh Sr and Jr
29:00 — Building the Drug Empire: How the Operation Worked
31:00 — Six Months of Surveillance: Police Close In
32:00 — 2013: The Trial and the 32-Year Sentence
33:02 — What the Welsh Family Tells Us About Glasgow

Disclaimer
This video is produced for educational and historical purposes only. All information is based on documented court records, published books, and verified journalistic sources. This channel does not glorify, promote or encourage criminal activity. Names and events discussed are part of the public historical record of Scottish criminal justice.

Sources
Paul Ferris and Reg McKay — The Ferris Conspiracy
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ferris-Consp...

BBC News — Drug gang were top of organised crime network 2013
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-22522279

BBC News — How two rival crime families turned Glasgow into a war zone
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20...

Paul Ferris VICIOUS Revenge Attack on Welsh Clan — YouTube
Video

Wikipedia — List of gangs in Glasgow
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...

#WelshFamilyGlasgow #GlasgowCrime #ScottishTrueCrime #TrueCrime #UKCrime #GlasgowUnderworld #PaulFerris #ArthurThompson #Blackhill #BloodAndConcrete

20 Comments

@MichaelMcsweeney-ch3vd 5 months ago

Poisoning there own working class people with herion how many people did they kill with that stuff kids going hungry children going into care so called gangster mass murderers

@WilliamMilne-w8i 5 months ago

Certainly more informed and seemingly accurate than many other takes on the Glasgow criminal fraternity.Enjoyable

@bluebaz 4 months ago

Nothing beats a story about your own city wi zero real photos and a narration by Lotso out of Toy Story 3.

@mepitonthenorthface 5 months ago

Enjoyed it thanks

@paulmcguire3382 5 months ago

Enjoyed the video just subscribed 👍

@CharlotteStewart-i1c 4 months ago (edited)

Enjoyed this. Love the comments. Yes the H has ripped through lots of families generation after generation in my case.

@raymierod1 5 months ago

I don't see anyone commenting on Rab Carruthers?Rab and I were pals but lost contact in the Late sixties Does anyone remember him and his life in Manchester?

@Charylxgary23 5 months ago

Ma ex Mrs wee Janet, god rest her 2 brothers John n Tony rip, ran aboot wi Tony bk in the day just upta 2 years ago rip Tony bhoy 💚

@bobmarleystoe 5 months ago

i grew up in the drum we where the san toi scary to think what we got upto back then.

@HARRY_1982 3 months ago (edited)

Info on point in this vid but the Ai voice and pics ain’t the one. I know it’s easier and quicker to make with Ai, but actual pics of the culprits and locations would make this so much better.

@scottishchap2008 2 months ago

I grew up with a Welsh relative "Welshy", guy was always breaking into factories and in and out of jail

@tech9auto223 5 months ago

I'm from the Calton in the east end started going to jail mid to late 90s and there's a family you never hear about but were feared the Coles David cole and his father Bert cole and brother Bert jnr now David cole as a teenager was bigger than most men he was a deviant sex offender I seen him hit with coshes batteries in socks but nothing fazed him he had the body of Frankenstein and brain to match he wouldn't go on protection and every now and then someone would attack him but when I went to the cons and came across the father and brother they were different ball game very clever but ruthless you could tell just by looking at them you didn't want to mess with them and I'm sure the old da kept getting not guiltys for very serious charges people think hammy was scary Bert cole was a lot more scary than hammy I'm surprised never hear anything about the Coles

@thomasmcgarrigle4354 5 months ago (edited)

I grew in C/milk, but had a father from the sooside and a mother from the Garngad...I do agree with the last comment about the smack epidimic in Glasgow in the early 80,s , but you cant put that on one family or another....I understand the persons comments but, and not proud of it and wasnt brung up like thst but I got involved ( to my demise) the crimanal world is what it is...Money to be made they go for it...I was in the Welsh family,s company once as a child at a new year party in Robroyston ave, they where like any other family, I was to young to think this or that...The H scene died away late eighties , then it was E period untill a certain sleeping pill or capsule got banned, then the H came back, fortunately for me I was in prison but the addiction side of it effected my family and still does with crack....It doesnt matter who has the bigger name, headlines etc...If theres money and people want it people will get it for them and reap the awards..Theres more than your usual names on the telly than the ones they report on....Still going...GB 🙏 everyone and there familys who have or are going threw what addiction does and not just drugs...

@grahampaterson9852 5 months ago

New here subbed mt

@TommyChristmas-y2n 5 months ago

The Welsh brothers tried to hang Paul Ferris in Blackhill

@JosephGallacher-x6s 5 months ago

I knew someone who livedi. Next Tenement Block to them in Black hill , he told me when he used a Bus if he got off at most convenient Bus Stop for him he had to walk past the Welsh Family Tenement Close , rather than do that he stayed on til next Bus Stop and walked back and extra 10 minutes walk ! He said it was rumoured the Father of the Family was forcing his Daughters to have sex with him ,.

@bobmarleystoe 5 months ago

whys burt reynolds telling us about glezga tools.

@JosephGallacher-x6s 2 months ago

I knew someone who owned a Pub in Glasgow , when young he lived in 'next close' ie Apartment Block in Black hill , and he would wait until the bus he was on stopped at next stop which meant he had to walk for 15 Mins back to his home as the Bus Stop more convenient meant he had to walk past the Welshs' . He said the local rumour was the Father was having sex with his daughters .

@neilkirkland737 5 months ago

It transforms the 1980’s

Boy talking on a mobile phone lol

@marcparadise2114 5 months ago

Paul Ferris was the governor, he was different level, Arthur Thompson may have been the godfather but he was always fearful of Ferris as was tam McGraw. Ferris had something the others didn't he was patient, I've watched documentaries read books from way back to Walter Norvile the Welsh clan McGraw, Ferris was the governor no doubt