TODAY’S TOP CRIMINAL IS A SHREWD ENTREPRENEUR AND IT COSTS BRITAIN £37BN
BRITAIN’S organised crime gangs have reinvented themselves as canny entrepreneurs with a global reach and a diverse range of operations.
And they cost the British economy an estimated £37billion a year.
Drugs, guns, human trafficking and money laundering through corrupt money transfer bureaus are among the key enterprises used by the gangs.
They are even collaborating with their foreign counterparts to “negotiate across borders” revealed DCS Mick Gallagher, who leads the Met Police Serious Crime Command. It
‘Gangs are part of a global network’
investigates major syndicates responsible for cross-border offences which then launder the proceeds and move them back to the countries of origin.
With such a sprawling network it’s difficult to keep tabs on them all.
But Mr Gallagher is across his brief – down to the number of serious organised crime gangs affecting London, “around 1,116”, he says. This is a quarter of the 4,500 gangs operating across Britain.
He revealed the extent of organised crime in the capital as the Government announced a major review of the scourge. Home Secretary Priti Patel said the 4,500 organised gangs nationwide cost the economy an estimated £37billion a year.
Mr Gallagher said they are operating on a global scale more than ever before, with criminals of various nationalities, including British, based here and overseas collaborating to get illegal commodities across borders and into the country.
He said: “What we see is international criminals operating in several spheres. These include modern slavery, human trafficking, drug and firearms trafficking, as well as other commodities such as alcohol, cigarettes and tax evasion and money laundering... And that is before you get into cyberspace where it is all going on in the virtual world, as well.
“It is a romantic idea to have this Mr Big in charge of a huge organisation just doing drugs – that is probably a dated business model.
“In 2019, the concept is of a criminal enterprise and they are doing exactly that.they are entrepreneurs.”
With the addition of high-level cyber-crime, Mr Gallagher said police have had to adapt in order to bring down these “new-world criminals”.
It has been widely reported that Albanian gangsters have gained nearcontrol of the cocaine market in the UK and have taken over much of the home-grown cannabis production from Vietnamese gangs, while also moving up the ranks in people smuggling and prostitution.
However, Mr Gallagher said it was much more complex than that.
“The idea of a certain country operating in a certain type of crime is not accurate. Why limit yourself to one crime type if you can make lot of money?
“There is no delineation between organised crime gangs coming from the Western Balkans or the Far East or central Europe or in the UK.
“What we see is more collaboration.
‘Police adapted to new-world villains’
Global networks need to do this to make their business models work and negotiate across borders.”
He said: “We have mapped 253 organised crime groups physically based in London but there are 863 outside the city that have an impact. They are gangs based in other areas that come in and out of London, so in total there are around 1,116.”
The figure gives no indication of the number of people involved and does not include 150 of around 170 urban street gangs based in London, which are often behind much of the current wave of knife attacks, robberies and street-level drug deals. Each organ