A man steps out of a Glasgow pub wearing a Kevlar vest because he already knows someone wants him dead. It doesn’t matter. Four shots later, Tony McGovern lies on the pavement outside the Morvan Bar, and the prime suspect is not a stranger or a rival, but a man who once stood beside him as best man.

We take you back to Springburn, a district built on railway works and then stripped of purpose by deindustrialisation, unemployment and the slow collapse of the schemes. Into that gap steps the McGovern family, nicknamed “the McGovernment” because their influence runs through everyday life: property, pubs, taxis and a security firm that look legitimate enough to feel like local infrastructure, while drug distribution and enforcement sit underneath. We talk about how organised crime in Glasgow can hide in plain sight when a community is desperate for stability and work.

The story gets darker as we follow the blurred boundary between the courts and the street through criminal lawyer James McIntyre, then into the partnership between Tony McGovern and Jamie Stevenson, a relationship built on trust, weddings and shared power. When money goes missing and suppliers are not paid, “peace talks” become a trap, and the aftermath turns chillingly quiet: photographs of the surviving family circulate through the underworld with no note attached, a threat made through certainty rather than noise. We also look at the wider web, including the industrial-scale shoplifting ring exposed by BBC Scotland and the EncroChat hack that finally brings a reckoning years later.

If you’re drawn to Glasgow true crime, Scottish organised crime history, and the human cost of gangland power, subscribe to A Dark City, share the episode with someone who loves deep reporting, and leave us a review with your take: where do you think real power shows itself?