Organised crime

INTERVIEW: As international collaboration between law enforcement agencies becomes increasingly critical to combat contemporary organised crime, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth spoke to Superintendent Ted Esplund and Project Manager Åsa Granström at the Swedish Police Authority about the importance of knowledge exchange as part of their participation in NOTIONES, a new European network bringing police agencies together to improve the capacity and capability of intelligence functions.

ANALYSIS: In October the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) marked 10 years in operation, a decade that has seen significant international operations, substantial convictions and drug seizures, and major technological advances; but as Cathy Haenlein, Director of Organised Crime & Policing at the Royal United Services Institute explains, the threat to the UK from serious and organised crime is on the rise, and policing alone cannot overcome that threat.

FEATURE: UK National Crime Agency Director General Graeme Biggar has warned that policing and the wider criminal justice system is not moving fast enough or far enough in its efforts to combat the shift online in serious and organised crime, and that the roll out of end-to-end encryption on sites such as Facebook would be “tantamount to consciously turning a blind eye” to child abuse, as Policing Insight’s Keith Potter reports.

ANALYSIS: Ahead of this week’s UK Society of Evidence-Based Policing (UK SEBP) Conference, National Crime Agency Temporary Director of Investigations John Denley, Keele University Academic Policing Collaboration Professor of Practice Marcus Beale, and Cambridge University Professor of Experimental Criminology Barak Ariel, highlight some of the key findings from their latest research drawing on police information and intelligence and the views of police professionals to explore new ways to prevent organised crime (the focus of an SEBP Conference session).

INTERVIEW: In the latest in a series of interviews with leading figures involved in the research and investigation of organised crime, Policing Insight’s Dr Chris Allen spoke to Dr Tetiana Melnychuk, Associate Professor at Ukraine’s National University Odesa Law Academy and visiting researcher at the Center for European and International Criminal Law Studies at the University of Osnabrück, about the ‘blurred edges’ of organised crime, preventing criminals infiltrating government and legal agencies, and the need to prepare for the restoration of law and order after the war in Ukraine.

OPINION: Shoplifting and retail theft have been subject to significant media and political focus over recent weeks, with the Government launching a new action plan while commentators call for tougher sentences to target organised gangs; but Transform Justice Director Penelope Gibbs argues that effectively tackling the problem will mean addressing the causes, improving diversion and rethinking the retail space, rather than simply increasing the sentence tariff.

FEATURE: Project Pegasus, a new police team using organised crime gang intelligence and retail crime gang data, has been launched to target the “rampant rise” in shoplifting in the UK as part of the Government’s new Retail Crime Action Plan, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: Tackling county lines and organised crime has become a key area for academic research in recent years, but not all research studies have been a positive experience for local residents or police; GLEPHA Associate and postgraduate researcher Janine Ewen has seen several such studies in her home city of Aberdeen, and shares her experiences as well as steps that researchers can take to improve outcomes and build better relationships with communities.

INTERVIEW: In the latest in a series of interviews with leading figures involved in the research and investigation of organised crime, Policing Insight’s Dr Chris Allen spoke to drug expert witness and consultant Matt Lockyer about the valuable lessons from working with former drug users, the significant impact of Operation Venetic, and the importance of independent assessment of evidence in drug-related court cases.

ANALYSIS: While the term ‘shoplifting’ suggest images of someone pocketing a chocolate bar, current retail thefts by organised crime groups in the UK are often more akin to systematic looting, yet the vast majority of offences still go un reported; City, University of London Criminology Professor Dr Emmeline Taylor argues that although an under-funded police service and criminal justice system has exacerbated the problem, retailers themselves could take more steps to safeguard stock and staff.

INTERVIEW: In the latest in a series of interviews with leading figures involved in the research and investigation of organised crime, Policing Insight’s Dr Chris Allen spoke to Bill Wood, former Head of the UNODC Programme Office in North Macedonia and previously National Crime Agency Liaison Officer based in Belgrade, about international collaborative approaches to tackling drugs, the crime dangers of ‘post-conflict’ fallout in Ukraine and Russia, and the frustration of governments’ corruption and support of organised crime.

ANALYSIS: With the complex digital underground increasingly offering ‘crime as a service’ facilities to both traditional organised crime groups and cybercriminals, understanding how the approach works is essential for law enforcement; Policing Insight’s Andy Staniforth looks at the latest information from Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), and new research funding that could help police organised crime investigators, analysts and experts tackle the problem.

INTERVIEW: In the latest in a series of interviews with leading figures involved in the research and investigation of organised crime, Policing Insight’s Dr Chris Allen spoke to Matt Horne, Former Deputy Director of the National Crime Agency (NCA) and now Head of Policing and Government at Clue Software, about why organised crime is like a virus, the importance of legislation to tackle economic crime, and why focusing greater effort on the enablers of organised crime is a key strategy.

ANALYSIS: With gang membership on the rise in recent years in New Zealand, the country’s novel approach – prioritising deep engagement with gang communities through bodies such as the Gang Harm Insights Centre, alongside tough enforcement – is under more pressure than ever, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

INTERVIEW: In the latest in a series of interviews with leading figures involved in the research and investigation of organised crime, Policing Insight’s Dr Chris Allen spoke to Valentin Pereda, Assistant Professor in the School of Criminology at the University of Montreal, about the need to tackle the flow of illegal firearms, the importance of conversations between academia and law enforcement, and the impact of organised crime in his home country of Mexico.

INTERVIEW: In the latest in a series of interviews with leading figures involved in the research and investigation of organised crime, Policing Insight’s Dr Chris Allen spoke to University of Bath Professor Felia Allum, Chair of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) Standing Group on Organised Crime, about talking to the mafia, the role of women in crime, and why the best way to tackle organised crime is by addressing poverty and lack of opportunity.

INTERVIEW: British journalist and author Ioan Grillo has reported on the cartels and organised crime gangs of Mexico and Central America for more than 20 years; he spoke to Policing Insight’s Martin Gallagher about reporting on extreme violence (there were 43,000 murders in Mexico last year), the parallels between Central America and the UK, and what motivates him in his work.

INTERVIEW: In the latest in a series of interviews with leading figures involved in the research and investigation of organised crime, Policing Insight’s Dr Chris Allen spoke to fraud and financial crime consultant Gerald Doyle about researching the true scale of waste crime, the changing focus of organised crime from drugs to finance, and why asset recovery may be the best way to target organised crime’s ever-evolving business model.

INTERVIEW: In the latest in a series of interviews with leading figures involved in the research and investigation of organised crime, Policing Insight’s Dr Chris Allen spoke to Walter Kemp, Senior Fellow at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (GI-TOC), about the illicit economies that profit from war and instability, the creation of a global strategy to fight organised crime, and why concerted global action is needed now.

INTERVIEW: In 2021, the UK Government announced Project ADDER – a new pilot programme combining disruption of criminal gangs selling drugs with a renewed focus on recovery; two years on, Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner Steve Turner believes it’s made a real difference to communities in his area, as he told Policing Insight’s James Sweetland.

INTERVIEW: In the latest in a series of interviews with leading figures involved in the research and investigation of organised crime, Policing Insight’s Chris Allen spoke to David Graves, Managing Director of DG Anti-Fraud Consultants, about the role private investigators can play in targeting crime, the need for policing to go ‘back to basics’, and why organised crime can be viewed as a virus.

OPINION: The illegal organ trade sporadically hits the national and international headlines, with suggestions that the activity largely takes place underground, carried out by organised criminals; but Assistant Professor and organ trade researcher Frederike Ambagtsheer argues that the reality is far removed from that, involving close collaborations between professionals and the criminals, and requires a broad range of responses.

INTERVIEW: In the latest in a series of interviews with leading figures involved in the research and investigation of organised crime, Policing Insight’s Chris Allen spoke to former Police Scotland Superintendent Martin Gallagher, now a policing consultant and Associate of the London Policing College, about Baroness Casey’s review, taking drug profits away from organised crime, and the importance of eradicating corruption.

INTERVIEW: In the latest in a series of interviews with leading figures involved in the research and investigation of organised crime, Policing Insight’s Chris Allen spoke to former police officer Neil Woods, now Chairman of Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP) UK, about legalising cannabis, how prescribing heroin can benefit society while landing a blow against organised crime, and the huge impact that the drugs market has on the climate crisis.