A MASSIVE operation to identify and decapitate the leadership of organised crime gangs north of the border will get under way within weeks, Scotland on Sunday can reveal.
The new head of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA) has ordered a year-long investigation to build up the most detailed picture yet of gangland Scotland, to be followed by a string of high-profile arrests.
Gordon Meldrum, in his
first full interview since taking up his post, said: "I do not believe that anyone is untouchable in Scotland."
Meldrum, who lectures at the FBI's Quantico academy in Virginia, said he wanted to be "lawfully audacious" in tackling the gangsters. The aim is to repeat in Scotland the success of the FBI in tackling the New York mafia in the 1980s.
Meldrum will draft in a team of academics – including accountants, computer experts and sociologists – to help police identify the gang leaders, where they operate, what they do, and their weaknesses .
The move also echoes the hit Hollywood film and television series The Untouchables, in which federal agent Eliot Ness assembled a hand-picked team, including an accountant, to bring down Al Capone.
Drugs, money laundering and people-trafficking are just some of the crimes that make massive profits for major criminals based in Scotland but cause misery to thousands and widespread chaos in society.
There is increasing evidence that gangs from eastern Europe and Asia are competing with home-grown criminals for a share of the proceeds.
But Meldrum admitted that not enough is known about organised crime in Scotland.
"Are there more than ten major crime figures in Scotland? Yes. But are there more than 50 and fewer than 100? I do not know.
"The commodity (the criminals deal in] does not matter. It is the power to influence and/or to corrupt which they are interested in.
"These people are just as entrepreneurial as our business leaders. I want to really understand and to realise what the threat from organised crime is to Scotland in 2008.
"The study will involve academics and the private sector because if you look at the FBI, they took ideas from a group of Harvard professors in the mid-Eighties to break the Mafia by infiltrating and attacking it in new ways. By doing it from within. Effect and disrupt.
"There is an impression that these organised crime groups have a rigid structure, like a police force. They do not. They are loose and amorphous networks which will form and reform for their own purposes when necessary."
The mass of information gathered during the SCDEA "mapping" exercise will be used in a determined bid to undermine and ultimately destroy the gangs.
Members identified as middle-ranking but influential will be lined up as informants, typically by identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities such as family pressure or outside influences such as gambling, drug addiction or affairs.
The confusion and suspicion caused by the informant and the wider investigation is likely to cause gang members to fall out among themselves.
The state of fear throughout the gang will be heightened as members are picked off one by one, potentially leading to its collapse. One senior police source said: "What we want to do is to bring organised crime to its knees and the best way to do this is to get them fighting amongst themselves.
"Organised crime is a ruthless and cut-throat business and so if we can sow a few seeds of doubt amongst them, we will not have too long to wait before things begin to implode."
The FBI used that technique in 1980s New York to bring down John Gotti, the so-called "Teflon Don'". University professors analysed the structure and make-up of the New York "Mob" and then advised FBI agents on how best to smash it.
In Scotland, gangsters have traditionally used "middle men" in cities such as Liverpool, Manchester or London to obtain drugs.
But there is increasing evidence of Scotland's major crime figures dealing directly with the narcotics importers such as the Colombians, Turks and the Dutch.
Another recent problem has been the increase in huge cannabis farms run by Vietnamese and Chinese gangsters which have sprung up across the country in the past two years. Similarly, eastern European crime groups and West African and Jamaican criminals are known to have arrived here.
But there have been successes in the battle against organised crime. In 2006, Ayrshire-born John "Piddy" Gorman was jailed for 12 years after being convicted of trying to organise a £24m cannabis shipment into the country. Gorman, 50, had spent years building up criminal contacts in Holland , Spain and North Africa.
The SCDEA used groundbreaking surveillance techniques to catch a close criminal associate of Gorman's. James "the Iceman" Stevenson, 41, from Glasgow, was jailed in 2007 for 12 years after admitting his part in a £1m money-laundering operation.
Bill Aitken, the Tories' Justice spokesman said: "I absolutely fully support Gordon Meldrum on this issue although I am somewhat fearful of what this survey might reveal.
"It underlines the need to recognise that the levels of sophistication of criminals has changed radically."
A spokesman for the Scottish government said: "We are committed to tackling serious organised crime and we must ensure that Scotland is not seen to provide a safe haven for organised criminals. That is why we are supporting the police by providing project management and research support to undertake this mapping exercise."
Task force crackdownPolice chiefs yesterday pledged a "relentless" crackdown on gang leaders after a new task force hit the streets.
Strathclyde Police's dedicated Gangs Task Force has been set up to target gang leaders and tackle gang-related violence.
Members were out in the Drumchapel area of Glasgow on Friday to round up those involved in antisocial behaviour, and made a number of arrests.
The new unit, based at Saracen Police Office, is part of the force's long-term commitment to reducing violence and making communities safer.
Superintendent Bob Hamilton, who heads the unit, said: "Our message is clear – we know who the gang members are and basically we will come and find you."
He said the task force was made up of officers who had extensive experience in dealing with disorder.
