Plans for new UK-wide crime agency outlined

An elite squad of specialist investigators will be created to take on the new challenge of fighting modern organised crime, the Home Secretary announced today.

The new UK-wide Serious Organised Crime Agency will bring together "world-class experts" including hi-tech and financial specialists and those with criminal intelligence and investigative skills.

The agency has been tasked to exploit hi-tech 21st century technology to uncover the new wave of crime bosses whose illegal enterprises range from drug trafficking and people smuggling through to fraud and money laundering.

The new agency will combine the responsibilities currently shared by:

• the National Criminal Intelligence Service
• the National Crime Squad
• Home Office work on organised immigration crime
• and HM Customs and Excise intelligence and investigation work on drug trafficking and recovering criminal assets.

The Home Secretary, David Blunkett, warned organised criminals that there could be no hiding place from the law.

"Organised criminals make their millions from human misery - trafficking in drugs and people, engaging in fraud and extortion. They control criminal empires that reach from the other side of the world to the dealer on the street corner. They believe they are beyond the reach of justice and out of our sights. That is not the case – no one should be untraceable and no one should be untouchable. This new agency will focus on tracking them down," he said.

"Modern organised criminals are sophisticated, organised and well-resourced entrepreneurs. We need to respond to this changing criminal threat, harness the skills of non-traditional investigators like accountants and legal experts and combine these with our world-class detectives and intelligence officers. We must become better organised, more sophisticated and more technologically capable than the criminals. We must not just keep pace but have to get ahead of them."

The economic and social costs of organised crime could be as high as £40 billion each year. The knock-on effect from such activity is enormous – 1kg of heroin trafficked and sold on a UK street can result in 220 victims of burglary as £250,000 of property is stolen by addicts to fuel their habit, the Home Office said.

Problem users of crack cocaine and heroin need to generate an illegal income of around £21,000-£25,000 per year to pay for their habits, and 280,000 problem drug users cause around half of all crime. Every £1 spent on heroin is estimated to generate about £4 of economic and social cost, the Home Office said.

Global profits from people smuggling are estimated to be $10 billion annually. Around 70% of illegal migrants are facilitated by organised crime groups, for a fee of around £11,000 each on average, according to Europol estimates.

The government also announced today that a comprehensive strategy to target organised criminals, including tough new legislation, will be set out shortly.

(gmcg)