Online shopping fuelling rise in gun crime

Organised gangs are smuggling weapons into country among growing number of retailers’ parcels

RISING gun violence is being fuelled by online shopping as gangs smuggle weapons hidden among legitimate parcels, the National Crime Agency (NCA) has warned.

An annual assessment of serious organised crime in Britain has found that firearms offences have increased by almost a third.

At the same time, the NCA warned that the ever-increasing number of parcels being sent into the UK is being exploited by gangs that are “concealing illicit goods among legitimate traffic”.

The report came just hours after two men, one in his late 20s and the other in his early 30s, were seriously injured in a shooting in a Birmingham car park.

In its strategic assessment of serious organised crime across the UK for 2018, the NCA has warned that it is “increasing in both volume and complexity”, driven largely by technology.

The report summarises: “Recorded sexual offences against children in the UK continue to increase year on year. Firearm offences increased by 27 per cent in 2016-17 (year ending June 2017), and drugs deaths are at their highest level since comparable records began in 1993.

“There were 3.4 million fraud offences in the year ending March 2017 – almost a third of all crimes.”

The report, which found that there were 4,629 organised crime groups in the UK at the end of last year, also warned that the closure of migrant camps at Dunkirk and Calais has led to Belgium becoming a location of “greater focus” for people smugglers.

The closures of the French camps have deprived migrants of an “opportunistic” way to cross the border and therefore they are increasingly turning to gangs, it said.

Some of the biggest challenges facing the NCA come from the increased use of technology, with the dark web and criminal trading sites providing “shared communities of interest”. The report warns that “technological advancements and the increase in the use of social media, particularly by children” is proving more opportunities for paedophiles.

Lynne Owens, the director general of the NCA, said: “This year’s assessment shows that organised crime groups are exploiting digital technology, for instance using encryption to communicate, and dark web market places to aid their activities.

“We are also seeing ever-increasing crossover between crime threats, with finance at the heart of this. Organised criminals involved in smuggling of people or firearms also supply drugs, and the relationship between organised immigration crime and modern slavery is becoming more apparent.

“Criminal groups seek to make as much money as possible from the suffering and exploitation of others, and continue to put the public at risk.”

The report also noted that the UK is a “prime destination” for corrupt, foreign “politically exposed persons” to launder the proceeds of corruption, particularly those from Russia, Nigerian and Pakistan.