Cracking organised crime

Drug trafficking is now international big business

Measures to tackle organised crime are to be unveiled today.

The police will be able to make more use of evidence from supergrasses and to allow phone tapped conversations to be used in court.

And a new agency, seen as a British equivalent of the FBI, is being set up. It'll be called the Serious Organised Crime Agency.

On Breakfast, this morning:

We asked former Scotland Yard commander, John O'Connor: will they work? He said:

The principles are ok, but they are not due to come on stream till 2006. It is a debating period now. When Blunkett looks at certain aspects closely they probably won't happen. Getting Inland revenue involved is a tremendous boost. It is a strategic way ahead. Plea bargaining is a bit of window dressing.

We heard from the Home Office Minister, Caroline Flint.

"We want all agencies to work together under one roof"

She said it is time to streamline operations:

It is time we bring agencies under one name, they will work better together.
Organised crime is a sad fact of life, especially as we all have easier access to travel, and mobile phones makes life easier for criminals.

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The home secretary has acknowledged he could face opposition on civil liberties grounds.

The national witness protection scheme is intended to encourage people to give evidence against organised crime bosses.

Spies exposed

Mr Blunkett told the Sunday Telegraph the white paper, entitled One Step Ahead: A 21st Century Strategy to Defeat Organised Criminals, would propose that phone tap evidence should be admissible in court.

He said: "A year ago, if you had asked me, I would have been very sceptical.

"I am much more convinced that, in a limited range of cases, intercept evidence would make sense."

Blunkett: May be opposed by civil liberties groups

The security services MI5, MI6 and government listening post GCHQ are said to have reservations about the use of surveillance material, fearing it will expose their techniques.

The white paper is also expected to suggest forcing associates such as lawyers, bankers and accountants - who are normally bound by confidentiality rules - to disclose information about gangster clients, or face jail themselves.

Officials confirmed the government was considering introducing formal plea bargaining to persuade gang members to give evidence against bosses in return for reduced sentences.

In February, Prime Minister Tony Blair suggested that the standard of proof may be lowered in organised crime prosecutions to snare more of Britain's gangsters.

"To require everything beyond reasonable doubt in these cases is very difficult," he said during a visit to the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit in London's Docklands.

Drug trafficking

SOCA will be an elite new law enforcement agency with about 5,000 investigators specialising in drug trafficking, people smuggling and fraud cases.

Its creation will be the biggest shake-up of the way British policing is organised since force boundaries in England and Wales were re-drawn 40 years ago.

It will replace the National Crime Squad, the National Criminal Intelligence Service and the investigative arms of Customs and Excise and the immigration service.

SOCA will require legislation following the white paper and is expected to be operational by 2006.

The white paper will say the economic and social costs of organised crime may be up to £40bn a year - equivalent to the GDP of New Zealand.

Just 1% of Customs defendants gave evidence in exchange for leniency last year, compared with 15% of similar defendants in Australia and 26% in the United States.