The National Crime Agency has today released its annual assessment of serious and organised crime, with a stark warning that taking drugs has never been more dangerous.
The threat from drugs to the UK has increased due to a rise in the production of cocaine, an expanding synthetic drugs market, an increase in the availability of synthetic opioids, and more cannabis being imported.
There has been a significant escalation in the criminal use of nitazenes as a cheap way to increase the strength of certain drugs, particularly heroin. In many cases, users simply do not know what they are consuming, and at least 284 deaths have been linked to high-strength nitazenes since June 2023.
The number of people dying in the UK from drug misuse is now amongst the highest in Europe, having more than tripled over the last 30 years. Illegal drugs are also a key driver of serious and organised crime that blights communities across the UK, putting people in harm’s way, and at risk of violence on the streets from the criminal gangs involved.
Using its international reach and unique partnership network, the NCA helped seize over 200 tonnes of class A drugs last year from across the globe, with an estimated street value of almost £17 billion had it reached the UK streets. And with every kilo taken out that was destined for the UK, the Agency prevents up to 1,000 street deals of cocaine or up to 10,000 deals of heroin.
The National Crime Agency’s National Strategic Assessment (NSA), which draws on intelligence from across law enforcement, government, the third sector and private industry, highlights that whilst overall crime has fallen in the UK over the last decade, the scale and harm of serious and organised crime has increased. Latest data pinpoints increases in the threat from child sexual abuse, cybercrime and money laundering, as well as drugs.
It also identifies that people in the UK are more vulnerable to serious and organised crime than ever before, as our use of technology continues to grow and criminals across the world exploit this. More than half of all crime (55%) is now online and approximately 90% is digitally enabled.
And children sadly continue to be exploited at scale, with criminals and those with a sexual interest in them seeking to target them via online platforms.
Cyber and fraud offences together now make up over half of all offences reported in the UK. Fraud on its own is the most prevalent crime against individuals in England and Wales, and in 2023, there where double the number of identified incidents of ransomware impacting UK victims compared to 2022.
Firearms crime and associated deaths have declined, down to 25 in 2023, which is close to an all-time low). Discharges overall have reduced since 2022, with 21% fewer in 2023 (463 down from 583).
NCA Director General, Graeme Biggar said: “While overall crime figures have fallen over the last decade, the scale and harm of serious and organised crime has increased. As we outline in our latest assessment, it is clear that serious and organised crime still causes more harm, to more people, more often, than any other national security threat. No part of our society is immune to its effects.
“The National Strategic Assessment helps us to understand the threat that serious and organised crime poses to communities across the UK, to target our efforts and guide others across law enforcement to protect them. The NCA is focused on targeting the most harmful organised crime groups, working across the UK, overseas and online to protect the UK public. Last year, in which the Agency marked its milestone ten year anniversary, we arrested a record 1,000 suspected criminals.
“As we have seen criminals taking advantage of technology to commit crime at an ever increasing pace and scale, affecting people and businesses across the UK, we have turned the tables to target them using the technology they rely on. We significantly disrupted LockBit, the longest running ransomware-as-a-service group who were responsible for the largest proportion of ransomware attacks over recent years. And shut down Russian Coms, a platform used by criminals to defraud victims across the world.
“We work with social media companies to take down online adverts set up by people smugglers to entice people to make the hazardous journey across the channel, and we have jailed people who thought they could hide on the dark web to facilitate the sexual abuse of children.
“And we are more committed than ever to targeting the organised criminals and gangs responsible for putting people in small boats to cross the channel, having seized more than 400 boats and engines over the last year.
“But we cannot tackle the threats from serious and organised crime alone. It’s never been as important to work with our partners and use our networks to tackle the threats globally and locally, to ensure the public understand how serious and organised crime can affect their daily lives and how they can keep themselves safe.”
Just some of the Agency’s work to tackle serious and organised crime this year includes:
Launching Project Housebuilder to lead and coordinate the law enforcement and public health response to the increased threat posed by nitazenes. Work under the project has included the implementation of a national reporting mechanism for UK policing, ongoing development of an early warning system to identify high-harm trends, analysis to provide operational opportunities, and a bespoke forensic strategy to tackle the challenge of a new drug group.
In February this year, the NCA and Border Force made what was believed to be the biggest ever seizure of Class A drugs in the UK. The haul of 5.7 tonnes of cocaine – with a street vale of around £450m – was found in a container at Southampton Port. The NCA identified the shipment, transported from South America, through our Near Europe Taskforce.
Leading the UK’s response in a multi-agency investigation into drug trafficking from South America and Europe, resulting in the arrest of ten British nationals. The joint operation was launched in 2020 and has been conducted by the Spanish Policía Nacional, National Crime Agency, Norway’s National Criminal Investigation Service, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the European MAOC, with the support of EUROPOL. Intelligence identified a British crime group, based in Spain, were responsible and since 2020, 52 people have been arrested – 29 in Spain- with 1.5 tonnes of cocaine, eight boats, 36 vehicles and firearms and ammunition seized.
Taking down LockBit, and degrading their physical ability to operate, along with their reputation and trust in their brand, we have also been able to significantly degrade the threat they pose and stopped their trajectory of growth in its tracks.
Infiltrating a significant DDoS-for-hire service – digitalstress.su – just last month (July). The NCA created an Agency controlled mirror site, which was used to harvest the data of potential criminals who the NCA will be targeting, along with policing partners. Following the arrest of the site Administrator by the PSNI, the NCA’s activity has shown that such domains are vulnerable and can be exploited to stop criminal activity and identify those responsible. User information will now be analysed by the NCA for law enforcement action, and data relating to overseas users will be passed to international law enforcement. Anyone using these services while our mirror site was in place has now made themselves known to law enforcement agencies around the world.
Shutting down a platform used by hundreds of criminals to defraud victims all around the world. Russian Coms, established in 2021, is thought to be behind financial losses in the tens of millions, with an estimated 170,000 people across the UK thought to be victims.
Leading around 70 live investigations into organised immigration crime and human trafficking, and our work has resulted in 75 arrests in the UK and 152 overseas. We have supported the seizure of over 400 boats and engines. The boats we are seizing are highly dangerous, do not meet safety standards and are in no way suitable for what smugglers are using them for. There is no safe number for passengers on these crossings and taking them out of circulation stops these dangerous vessels being used
In 23/24 the NCA disseminated 12,500 actionable referrals to police forces for their own investigation, which contribute to forces nationally arresting 800 individuals on suspicion of child sexual abuse offences and safeguarding up to 1,200 children every month over the last 3 years. The NCA has arrested 60 offenders, achieving 93 convictions for a range of CSA offences, with an average sentence length of 4.4yrs. This includes a London-based man who was jailed for 18 years in December 2023 who used Snapchat to pose as a model scout and manipulate children into sending self-generated indecent images and videos.
Zamira Hajiyeva, the wife of a jailed Azeri banker whose property was subject to the first Unexplained Wealth Orders granted in the UK, agreeing to forfeit a house in Knightsbridge worth approximately £14 million and a golf club in Ascot. Both assets were believed to have been obtained as a direct result of large-scale fraud and embezzlement, false accounting and money laundering.
MORE: Read the National Strategic Assessment in full here
15 August 2024
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