Police: We'll hit capital crimelords for £10m

Published on Monday 28 September 2009 22:38

ALMOST £10 million of assets from criminals in and around Scotland's capital are set to be seized following a six-month crackdown on the activities of major players.

Details of a string of big-money raids were unveiled yesterday as police chiefs revealed they were making inroads into cracking more than 35 gangs of serious criminals.

Some 24 people have been arrested since the beginning of September, with the discovery of 1 million worth of heroin, 220,000 worth of cannabis and 50,000 worth of cocaine in separate raids during the last week alone.

The force had already seized some 1.6 million of class-A drugs between the beginning of April and mid-September.

A major drive against organised crime in the force area has been underway since a nationwide "mapping" investigation to produce the most complete picture of organised crime ever compiled. It was completed in the spring. Some 980,000 of assets have since either been seized or are the subject of reports to the Crown Office.

Although drugs are linked to most of the crime gangs, the force is investigating money-laundering, counterfeit goods, fraud, human trafficking and exploitation of prostitutes.

Lothian and Borders yesterday joined forces with Scotland's justice secretary Kenny MacAskill to issue a public plea for people to report any suspicious activity in their neighbourhood or business. The force is already planning to recruit five new officers after receiving a recent share of funding seized from serious criminals.

Now the police have pledged to step up their efforts against the likes of private hire taxi firms, security businesses, shop owners and other traders they suspect of having links to gang leaders.

The Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency revealed earlier this year that more than 4,000 people were suspected of involvement in around 367 serious crime groups, the majority of which are said to have access to guns. About 240 crooked lawyers, accountants and other professionals are believed to help criminals to launder money and carry out other illegal activities.

Detective chief superintendent Malcolm Graham, head of CID at the force, said: "The national mapping project which was carried out earlier this year increased our knowledge of the 35 organised crime groups which were identified as impacting on our area.

"The intelligence garnered on a national level and our own mapping process is being fed to all areas of the force where there will be co-ordinated initiatives and investigations to divert, disrupt, deter and detect these networks. There is no doubt that knowledge is power and, in the past few days, we have used this information to great effect."

Mr MacAskill said: "We all need to work together to put these criminals on notice that we are determined to take them out and take them down."