Officers raided almost 200 private security sites across the west of Scotland in one night as part of Strathclyde Police’s new strategy to stamp out the growing threat of rogue firms using legitimate fronts to launder the proceeds of crime, much of it from drug dealing.
The force is now committed to confronting the gangsters at every possible level of law-breaking, including licensing issues, benefit fraud and the employment of illegal immigrants.
Its strategy talks of employing “lawfully audacious tactics” to try to remove organised crime from businesses to ensure they cannot obtain future public contracts.
Last month, The Herald reported that Strathclyde Police had written to NHS Greater Glasgow to urge it not to go ahead with a £2m taxi contract to Network Private Hire, which is on the brink of winning the deal to transport patients and supplies from Glasgow hospitals.
Ministers are said to be furious that the board has, in principle, agreed to give £2m of taxpayers’ money to a firm that had previously been raided as part of a money-laundering investigation.
The new Strathclyde strategy says serious organised criminals are increasingly taking over legitimate areas and forcing out other businesses.
It warns that such groups are increasing their empires, not just in the west of Scotland but across the country, and that it is vital to tackle the problem before multi-million-pound contracts for the 2014 Commonwealth Games are awarded.
Senior officers have already written to a number of local authorities and public bodies warning them against granting contracts to businesses with links to organised crime.
On Friday night, accompanied by The Herald, the force visited 180 security sites and found six guards committing Security Industry Authority offences. Eight cases were referred to the Department for Work and Pensions, and three guards were detained for immigration offences.
The force strategy states: “Unless concerted action is taken against criminal security and taxi companies, they will continue to expand, eventually dominating the market and, as a consequence, making it almost impossible for legitimate companies to continue to operate or for new companies to establish themselves.
“One of the consequences of targeting organised crime groups behind criminal security and taxi companies is that instances of violence, intimidation and criminal damage are likely to rise in the short term, before the positive effects of the strategy are seen.
“If we are to impact on organised crime, we have to employ new and lawfully audacious tactics. To use an analogy, major surgery will leave scars, but it is necessary otherwise the cancer of the criminal security and taxi industry will get worse.”
The strategy follows the mapping project launched by the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency in June. It revealed there were 4066 individuals representing 367 organised crime groups across the country.
Detective superintendent John McSporran, who wrote the new strategy, said: “When we looked at the scale of organised crime across Strathclyde, we realised we have got to work smarter and reduce their opportunities to obtain money through legitimate and illegitimate means. Many of them have set up quasi-legitimate businesses, which they use to launder money obtained illegitimately.
“They are making millions of pounds from this. For the first time, we are sharing intelligence with public authorities and the Security Industry Authority so they know when they are considering a contract whether the company is just a front for organised crime. It is about protecting our communities and allowing legitimate businesses to flourish.”
