A Campaign to stamp out Scotland's most dangerous organised criminal gangs has been launched.
Violent gangsters who create "misery" through buying and selling drugs and firearms, money laundering, human trafficking and making counterfeit documents are to be at the centre of a two-month crackdown by Strathclyde Police.
Officers will swoop on apparently legitimate businesses and individuals identified by intelligence officers as having links to organised criminal networks in a bid to "disrupt and deter" them from their underground activities.
The Serious and Organised Crime campaign is the third phase of Strathclyde Police's long-term Campaign Against Violence, and will run to October 31 this year.
It will see "relentless" pressure put on organised criminals who resort to violence and intimidation to protect their ill-gotten gains.
Assistant Chief Constable George Hamilton, from the force's crime division, said organised criminal activity cost Scotland £2bn every year.
He said the campaign was focused on making it difficult for organised gangsters to operate.
"Over the next two months we will relentlessly target those linked to serious and organised crime and do everything in our power to make life difficult for those involved in this type of criminality," he said.
"There is a perception that serious organised criminal gangs operate at a distance, when in reality they are present within our communities.
"Those involved in serious and organised crime live next door to decent, law-abiding people and are the types of individuals who seem to always have the best of everything but no obvious means of income."
He said the gangs' main commodities were money and power, but that individuals dealt in everything from drugs, human trafficking and counterfeiting to firearms and money laundering.
Using seemingly legitimate businesses as a means to front their criminal activity, they will often use violence and intimidation to protect their assets.
Mr Hamilton continued: "People often don't realise they are indirectly funding serious and organised crime. For example, buying counterfeit goods lines the pockets of these criminals and is funding not only their wealthy lifestyle but is being used to fund more serious crimes."
Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, a member of a national task force against serious and organised crime, said the government and the police were determined to "take out and take down" underground gangs operating in Scotland.
"The Scottish Government, working with all the members of the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce, is committed to tackling the scourge of serious organised crime, which brings misery to our communities through the peddling of drugs, counterfeit goods and other criminal enterprises," he said.
"This puts these gangsters on notice that there is nowhere to hide, no matter what nefarious means they are using to get their ill-gotten gains."
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