The ‘Hunter of Pedophiles’ grandmother who was head of drug trafficking and built an empire of the heroine

The rise and fall of the famous ‘Big Mags’ Haney Jim Stewart/BBC in January 1997, long before the modern phenomenon of online “pedophile hunters”, a Scottish grandmother gained fame overnight by successfully expelled a sexual criminal convicted of the Raprach housing development in the scottish city of Stirling. Margaret “Big Mags” Haney and her justice spirit turned her into a matriarchal personality in the media. ✅ Click here to follow the G1 international news channel on WhatsApp one of its most famous appearances was in the popular daytime Kilroy TV show, where it was invited to discuss the “pedophile panic” that was plaguing the county. Haney argued with the program host, fought with other guests and threatened two men in the audience, clearly disguised, who had been convicted of abusing children. Its popularity fired and, in its new role as a self -proclaimed activist against pedophilia, it began to appear in protests across the country. Haney’s popularity increased after her participation in the popular Kilroy program in 1997 Reproduction/BBC she was seen as a whole and honest person, applauded in many places for defending decent people and measures to, as she would say, solve a problem that no one else was facing. Sometimes with a microphone, sometimes with a poster, if Mags was part of the crowd, the press was interested – and the media appearances were still happening. “I think there was something inside her, because she really believed it was wrong,” says Cassie Donald, her granddaughter of Haney, who first spoke in a BBC podcast. “The community was already suffering enough without the pedophiles. She wasn’t the only person who spoke. It just shouted louder.” But Haney kept a secret, and it didn’t take long for it to come out. Six months after his meteoric rise to fame, the focus of the press moved to the Haney family criminal record. Big Mags was head of a “wave of family crimes” responsible for theft and string violence. They were called the “family of the hell of Scotland” by the tabloids. “Some of them could have dozens of crimes on their behalf,” recalls Daily Record journalist Mark McGivern. “The number of crimes committed in Stirling for this family was legendary, so it wasn’t good to have them around,” he says. Haney argued with the host and fought with other guests from the Kilroy Reproduction/BBC program with the exposed family crimes, and the patience of the local community sold out, Big Mags and the Haney were forced to leave the housing estate by a group of 400 people – larger than the one they gathered to expel the pedophile Alan Christie six months earlier. The crowd gathered near Mags’s apartment, shouting “make a fire and put the Haney at the top.” As the screams got higher, police vehicles arrived at Huntly Crescent to avoid a riot. Haney came out of pink and slipper T -shirt, and showed the middle finger to the crowd while taking far away to her own safety. After his exile from the Raprain Housing Estate, Haney was placed in a temporary accommodation provided by the Municipality. But, like no other local authority in Scotland or northern England was willing to relieve her, she eventually settled at the Lower Bridge Street, a few steps from her ancient territory. Throughout this time, she continued with “celebrity” status, and the Scottish press still loved news about Big Mags. In 2000, a darker secret about the matriarch and the Haney clan came to light. The Mark McGivern newspaper launched the “Shop-a-Dealer” campaign, which encouraged readers to denounce anonymously the largest heroine traffickers in their communities. The phones kept playing, with many people calling to incriminate Big Mags, accusing her of being the head of a trafficking dynasty that sold heroin in her apartments. Community leader and gangster mcgivern remembers how Mags’s status changed from celebrated to feared. “She was a public figure, a community leader, a great heroine drug dealer and a gangster,” he says. The journalist had a well -informed source that revealed to him the Haney drug trafficking operation, with MAGs in charge. He then investigated, and witnessed family members selling drugs in the apartments. McGivern even bought some Haney heroin packages as part of his investigation. Despite having the necessary material to publish the report, he wanted to try to negotiate the purchase of drugs directly with the head of the scheme. “I entered, asked me to go to the living room, and I was a little surprised to see that Mags was sitting on a throne, a huge chair in the middle of the room,” recalls the journalist. “I asked to buy drugs-heroine-and she looked at me and said, ‘We don’t sell heroine here.'” I thought, ‘How am I going out of this?’ “Stained and feeling somewhat intimidated, McGivern fled the” Fortaleza Haney “as it was known, and returned to write her report. One “. There was a secret police operation. Four members of the Haney clan were arrested for drug-related crimes and tried at the Edinburgh High Court. In court, Haney was earned up to a thousand pounds a day from the operation, and received £ 1,200 for the benefits of the state. Heroine from what was known as “Haney Hotel.” Haney was condemned to 12 years in prison; his 35 -year -old daughter Diane was condemned to nine years; And when I returned home, they just weren’t there, “Cassie told BBC.” They told me, ‘Your mother is in prison, but you’ll see her soon.’ “The attitude toward them at the time was basically: ‘You have done the bed, now they lay on her’, and there wasn’t much consideration of everyone.” Haney’s drug trafficking, which was allegedly intense throughout the 1990s. These Haney family members were convicted of their involvement in an 18 -month drug operation until their prison in 2001. Simon McLean, a retired policeman who investigated the Haney, told the BBC podcast because he thought the drug trafficking operation had not been dismantled before. She was an informant, “he said.” Criminal families and organized crime leaders, I met all these people, and never met one who didn’t talk to the police on some level. “Another police source confirmed that Big Mags provided police information. Mags Haney died of cancer in 2013. Twelve years later, Cassie believes her grandmother’s legacy is more complex than was portrayed in the media.” True at the same time, “she says.” You can be a drug dealer who has sold drugs that potentially killed people, but it can also be a loving grandmother and a good person. “” I still feel that we should tell her her story. ”

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