UK police combating alien crime gangs

Nearly 2,600 drug smugglers, people traffickers and fraudsters have been prosecuted by new joint United Kingdom Border Agency and police teams since April 2008, Border and Immigration Minister Phil Woolas stated in a report obtained by the National Association of Chiefs of Police. These prosecutions were highlighted at the first joint UK Border Agency (UKBA) and Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) conference on Monday.

Almost 300 police officers were assigned to UKBA Immigration Crime Teams across the country working to identify and disrupt organized immigration crime including human trafficking, fraud and forgery. Since April this year more than a million US dollars have been seized, helping to further disrupt criminal operators.

Woolas also outlined a greater push toward using immigration laws to target known foreign national criminals who are alleged to be involved in more serious offences including gang and knife crime. “When people come to live in the UK they enter into a deal: to work hard and play by the rules to earn their right to stay. Those who choose to commit crimes break that deal and must be removed," he wrote in a report obtained by NACOP. “As Al Capone found out, you only need one conviction to bring down a criminal house of cards. Immigration powers can prove the solution to prosecuting and removing foreign criminals from the UK."