NCA declares war on ‘unexplained wealth’ of county lines drug gangs
COUNTY lines gang bosses will have their property, luxury cars and watches seized by police under laws designed to tackle corrupt oligarchs, says the head of the National Crime Agency.
In an exclusive interview with The Daily Telegraph, Lynne Owens said NCA investigators already had a number of gangs “in their sights” and would force the crime bosses to account for their wealth or have it seized.
It came as she warned that the Government’s focus on boosting bobbies on the beat could hamper the fight against the drugs gangs by “squeezing” funding to the NCA and other units.
She said a failure to combat organised crime could result in more violence on the streets, more children abused online and more cyber attacks.
Ms Owens said £2.7 billion more was needed to tackle the “staggering damage” caused to Britain by the 181,000 people the NCA estimates are involved in serious and organised crime at a cost of £37 billion a year. The NCA issued the UK’S first “unexplained wealth order” last year against the wife of an Azerbaijani banker who spent £16 million in Harrods. Now, Ms Owens said, the order could be used against county lines gang chiefs who use social media to lure recruits with online displays of their flashy lifestyle and wealth.
“I think you best tackle the drugs trade by making it not pay,” she said. “And actually, we now have the powers to do it.” A single “county line” – where drugs are shipped from cities to towns miles away – can make £800,000 in a year. The number of lines have more than doubled in 12 months to 2,000, worth £500 million annually. She said the NCA will use account-freezing and recovery orders as well as “unexplained wealth orders”, which were a vital “investigative tool where you’ve identified somebody might have 10 houses, but they’re currently on benefits.” She added: “And if they can’t account for the wealth, then we can then apply to the court to seize their property.”
The NCA would target people like “jobless” Londoner Anthony Okopie, 29, who was jailed for 12 years for running county lines that took high purity heroin and cocaine into Plymouth. He spent thousands on cars, designer watches and trainers, banking more than £227,000 over three years.
Previously, police could only seize assets after a prosecution. Asked if they
had specific gang bosses in their sights, she said: “We do.” The work is being led by the NCA’S newly formed Economic Crime Centre, funded with £48 million in government cash but with no guaranteed income stream after 2020.
Ms Owens said she was worried that efforts against organised crime were going to be squeezed out by a focus on counter-terrorism and the “understandably deeply-valued” visible street police officer. She said counter-terrorism received £750 million a year compared with £550 million for the NCA and regional police organised crime units.
“There isn’t a competition, and I wouldn’t want it to be presented as such,” she said. “But it is important to make comparisons when terrorism and serious and organised crime are national security threats. We need a strong, effective capable NCA.”
She added: “The nature of serious organised crime has changed and therefore the visible front line we need to fight serious and organised crime isn’t all the traditional beat bobby. We need undercover officers who can work on the dark web to identify the most vile child sex of abusers and offenders. We need data analysts and scientists to understand cyber attacks.
“We need financial investigators who can take assets off the elite who try to manipulate UK systems. So it’s important that, yes, we have this visible policing, but it’s supported by other specialists.”
The battle against organised crime was limited by “variable capabilities” in different regions and a strategy that was a “bit toothless” in failing to specify what resources were needed in each region, Ms Owens said.
“My fear is that if we don’t see change in capabilities and investment, that the growth in serious and organised crime will continue.
“At its worst, more children will be abused, violence could continue on the streets and we could see more cyber attacks, and the UK continue to be the place where criminals look to invest.”