How much, and in what way, has organised crime changed in recent years?
Ten or 12 years ago, I was running the National Intelligence Office in Scotland, the forerunner to the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca). At that time, the organised crime groups in Scotland were primarily involved in the importation of drugs and, within that, heroin. They always went via a middle person, usually in Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham or London. They didn’t go directly into Europe or anywhere else in the world. Now, it’s unusual for them to actually go through a middleman somewhere else in the UK. They invariably go directly into central Europe, South America, or frankly any other part of the globe. They’ve also diversified. The commodity is no longer important. We don’t have people who specialise in getting heroin from Afghanistan. We have groups of individuals and networks who come together to maximise power and profits. If the profits are to be made in heroin or firearms, or people or alcohol, they’re happy to deal in that commodity. They have become more entrepre
