Line of Duty-style corruption ‘exists in Scotland’
● Officer warns of infiltration by organised gangs
A former undercover policeman has claimed Police Scotland will have a corruption problem as a result of being infiltrated by organised crime gangs, warning that TV show Line Of Duty is not “farfetched”.
Neil Woods, who is part of the Law Enforcement Action Partnership (Leap), said corruption has occurred in England and “guaranteed” it would also be happening in Police Scotland.
He said most police officers are incorruptible, but a minority can be influenced.
Mr Woods said he believed the issue was “endemic and cannot be defended against” unless drugs policy was reformed to legalise all drugs and remove the drugs market from organised crime.
Speaking at a fringe event at the SNP’S spring conference in Edinburgh yesterday, Mr Woods said: “If anyone has been following Line Of Duty and think it is far-fetched, well, we should be scared.”
The TV drama follows the investigations of an anticorruption unit in the police.
Mr Woods said the illicit drug market is “destabilising the entire world”.
He said: “There is a less than 1 per cent murder detection rate in Mexico because it’s often the police that are actually doing the murders, because they are employed by the cartels.
“The only way to deal with that is to take the market away from organised crime.
“Now we may be a long way
from Mexico, but we are going in that direction.”
Mr Woods said one police officer he met while undercover was employed by a gangster in Nottingham to join the police and was there for seven years, being paid £2,000 a month on top of his police salary, with bonuses for providing good information.
He said: “All of the senior police that I’ve spoken to about this topic all agree that this is endemic and you cannot defend against it.
“This corruption is only
going to get worse until you change direction.”
Mr Woods called for all drugs to be legalised and regulated to tackle the problem. He said: “Obviously the majority of police officers are untouchable and incorruptible, but that minority will always be there and it doesn’t take many.
“I guarantee, absolutely guarantee, that the corruption that I talk about in England and Wales is going to be here in Scotland as well.”
Mr Woods said there would be local examples of “the
gangster who gets away with crimes”. He added: “It is the nature of the drugs market that this is endemic and impossible to defend against, unless we take the market away from organised crime.”
SNP members have previously lobbied for the Scottish Government to demand the power to set drugs policy from Westminster as a step on the road towards decriminalisation of some substances.
The party’s former justice secretary, Kenny Macaskill, has also called for drugs policy to be devolved, accusing Scottish ministers of “cowardice” for not demanding the powers already.
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Police Authority declined to comment on the claims.
Police Scotland has been contacted for comment.