Pubdate: Mon, 25 Feb 2002
Source: Independent  (UK)
Copyright: 2002 Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.independent.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/209
Author: Jason Bennetto, Independent

INFORMATION 'BLACK HOLE' ON BRITAIN'S DRUG GANGS

Most of Britain's top heroin and cocaine traffickers operate with impunity 
because of a "black hole" in information about them, an intelligence 
assessment has found.

The police, customs, MI5 and MI6 know nothing about 60 per cent of the 
country's heroin smugglers, the study discovered. The findings, details of 
which have been seen by The Independent, have led to a change of strategy 
against traffickers in class-A narcotics.

Customs and Excise officers, backed by M16 and MI5 agents, are now 
concentrating on foreign drug sources and supply routes rather than 
traffickers in the United Kingdom.

The intelligence assessment of Britain's most prolific 25 heroin 
traffickers discovered that about half operated from abroad, while the 
remainder were in London, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and 
Edinburgh. But, the study also reported that there was a "black hole" in 
intelligence and that only about 40 per cent of the heroin kingpins were 
known to the authorities. The remaining 60 per cent were either working 
from abroad with lieutenants in the UK, had set up elaborate unidentified 
networks or were based in ethnic communities that law agents had no 
contacts with, such as the Bangladeshi community in east London.

A similar lack of intelligence surrounding cocaine traffickers has been 
identified, although the problem is not as acute.

Details from the study have been passed to the National Crime Squad, 
Customs, security services and Home Office ministers, which make up an 
inter-agency drugs group.

Heroin and crack cocaine have been identified as the two most dangerous 
drugs being used in the UK. Heroin sales reach about UKP2.3bn a year, 
followed by crack with UKP1.8bn.

Of the 25 top heroin traffickers identified, several had no criminal 
records. About half lived abroad in countries that included Turkey, Albania 
and Azerbaijan. "It would be wrong to assume that if we arrested everybody 
on that list the problem would go away," said a law enforcement source.

"It would be a mistake to believe that dealing with what you know will have 
an impact. If you imagine the heroin industry as a radar screen, the chunk 
that we know very well is made up of white Anglo-Saxon bank robbers and 
Turks that we have known for years. They represent 40 per cent. Sixty per 
cent of the screen is blank.

"We have big gaps in our knowledge, for example in the Bangladeshi 
community. We know there is a problem but we don't have any intelligence," 
said the source. Traffickers are increasingly using "clean skin" couriers 
without criminal records and who speak foreign languages and operate with 
fake passports.

Customs and other agencies are refocusing on attacking the assets of the 
known traffickers who have been laundering vast quantities of cash in 
Britain, often through bureaux de change. "You target businesses, share 
holders, the heroin and the profit - all these increase the risk in 
trafficking," said an intelligence source.

But the biggest shift in resources is abroad. "We are working across 
borders," said the law enforcement source. The approach includes hitting 
poppy crops in Afghanistan, the source of up to 90 per cent of Britain's 
heroin, and targeting the supply chain in Turkey.

The assessment also identified a boom in Colombian cocaine traffickers 
moving into Britain and mixing with Spanish communities, most notably in 
west London.
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