Britain falls victim to a wave of crime tourism

ONE in five suspected criminals in Britain is a foreign national, new figures show.

Statistics suggest the UK has fallen prey to a wave of crime tourism with an overseas lawbreaker held every three minutes on average last year.

The revelation follows the publication of a top-level National Crime Agency report which raised fears about violent Balkan criminal gangs wielding vast power over Britain’s cocaine trade.

The NCA warned Albanian gangs had “established a highprofile influence within UK organised crime” with their hallmark being the violent trade in trafficking cocaine to London.

It said: “Criminals from the Balkans are increasingly expanding their network of influence, forming direct relationships with cocaine suppliers in Latin America.

“The threat faced from Albanian crime groups is significant. London is their primary hub but they are established across the UK.”

Figures collated by police and published for the first time yesterday showed how Britain had become a haven for a network of foreign criminals.

Innocent

They revealed that 172,732 – or 19 per cent – of the 931,155 people arrested in 2016/17 were foreign nationals.

The total represents an increase from 16 per cent on the previous year, according to internal figures collated by the ACRO Criminal Records Office from police forces around the country.

Matthew Horne, the deputy director general of the NCA, said: “We are seeing significant control being exerted particularly by organised crime from Albania in so far as cocaine in particular is concerned.

“You are talking about tens of thousands [of pounds] generally in transactions every week. The violence is often used to enforce the model of working. We are concerned that there are innocent bystanders in this.”

In London, as many as a third of all suspects are from overseas with foreign nationals now comprising 11 per cent of the prison population in England and Wales.

Only last month a Lithuanian gang was jailed for a raid on a family jewellers in Truro, Cornwall, in which a team flew into Britain specifically to steal millions of pounds of gems and watches from the shop.

In one of the most notorious cases of foreign offending Lithuanian builder Arnis Zalkalns, 41, who had been jailed for murdering his wife in his homeland, moved to London without anyone apparently knowing his background.

In 2014, he killed 14-year-old Alice Gross, whose body was found in a canal in west London, before hanging himself.

Met Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Richard Martin has warned of the growing threat from crime tourism.

He said: “Police investigations are becoming increasingly complex due to mass migration, globalisation of business, existing and emerging internetbased communication mediums, together with the ease with which individuals can travel across the world.

“Police officers are now far more likely to encounter foreign nationals during the course of their duties.

“To address this dynamic aspect of policing requires a change of mindset.”

He added: “Officers and staff need to recognise and understand the threat posed by international criminality and respond accordingly.”