Partnership hailed after firearm bid caught out

The David Mitchell case has been hailed as a key victory for Scotland’s newlyformed Organised Crime Partnership (OCP), set up in September.

Based at the Scottish Crime Campus in Gartcosh, the partnership between the National Crime Agency (NCA) and Police Scotland currently sees 30 multidisciplined investigators – 15 from each organisation – tasked with the fast investigation of organised and serious crime that continues to impact on communities across Scotland.

And while the partnership’s quick action in relation to the Mitchell investigation has yielded a swift and positive outcome, the partnership continues to carry out a variety of investigations into diverse crime types, including the importation of class A drugs, modern slavery and human trafficking, child abuse and sexual exploitation, and, as in this case, the importation of firearms.

Rob Burgess, regional head of investigation for the NCA for Scotland and Northern Ireland, said the OCP brings together the best of a number of organisations in order to target the most serious organised crime.

“The sentencing of Mitchell, as far as I’m concerned, marks a milestone in the newly-formed OCP and the role of the NCA contributing even greater success to Scotland,” he added.

“I think this partnership is a turning point for the NCA in Scotland, but it’s also a very exciting milestone for activity for tackling serious and organised crime in Scotland.”

Estimates suggest there are 111 known crime groups in operation across Scotland right now, more than half of which are thought to be in the west of Scotland, with more than 2,000 people generally associated with those groups.

Detective Chief Superintendent Gerry Mclean, who heads Police Scotland’s organised crime and counterterrorism unit, described the number of firearm incidents as “broadly consistent” over the past few years, but admitted tackling criminal gangs remains a tough nut to crack.

He said: “The number of crime groups has come down from the early stages of Police Scotland from being just north of 300 groups to what we have now.

“But they are very entrepreneurial so if they think there is power or money or criminal profit to be made – whatever that looks like to them – then they will diversify into other areas.

“We’re not seeing an increase in the use of firearms, but what I would say is the availability of firearms with globalisation, as the world changes, and particularly Eastern Europe changes in its dimensions, all of this makes firearms more readily available.”