Community experiences of serious organised crime in Scotland: research report

5. Emergent and Diffuse Organised Crime

Overview

Previous chapters have focused on traditional forms of organised criminal activity in community settings, including markets in illicit drugs and related issues such as violence, coercion and exploitation. However, fieldwork also disclosed a range of new, emergent and diffuse forms of organised crime that have specific forms of impact that are distinct from those covered in earlier chapters.

This chapter discusses a range of emergent trends identified through data-collection, as well as elaborating on the range of diverse and diffuse community impacts of organised crime. The first section will cover the diversification of criminal markets into new areas, including the impact of social media on drug distribution. The second section details the impact of mobile organised crime groups on Scottish communities, while the third focuses on the community impacts of diffuse organised crime, in particular labour exploitation and human trafficking. The final section examines some of the key factors and challenges involved in tackling these forms of emergent and diffuse SOC activity.

New technology and diversification

Whilst fieldwork demonstrated marked continuities in the nature, form and extent of SOC activity in Scotland from previous generations, there were also some signals of change and emerging markets pertaining to youth crime, drug distribution, and market diversification.

Several interviewees – both residents and community and statutory organisations – highlighted a recent movement away from visible, territorially-based gang activity. While historically territorial gang violence might have operated as a seed-bed for later recruitment into more organised criminality, in recent years gang activity appears to have declined. Instead, several participants, including police officers and housing officials, perceived that young people had become involved in criminality as drug couriers.

One professional noted that the use of social media has changed the drug dealing landscape, and young people can be recruited on a more ad-hoc basis as opposed to via territorially-based gangs. A resident in the same area suggested that the senior drug dealers have a strong interest in their recruits not drawing attention to themselves through activities such as gang-fighting, although there were reports of one SOC group employing a local 'young team' to vandalise a business premises as part of a bid for a security contract.

For one resident, although young people were not involved in gangs they were heavily involved in drug dealing. Though geographic territorialism was less of an issue, having an allegiance to one of the local crime families was, and coming into conflict with a rival family could have similar consequences to what happened in the past when youths intruded into rival gang territories.

One key trend related to the role and reach of internet-based platforms and technologies, and in particular the exploitation of secure messaging systems and social media sites for criminal ends. For one respondent, such innovations in organised criminal activity are simply further evidence of the flexibility of such networks to operate effectively in a criminal market that privileges adaptation to 'threats', principally from policing and enforcement agencies.

Whilst it is clear that new technologies are exploited in criminal markets by well-established organised criminals, in some respects, such innovations may also represent an opportunity for new actors to emerge to serve particular consumers; for example, obtaining fake goods from new markets overseas. In some cases, these new virtual routes continue to have a base in traditional sites of criminal markets. In 2016, a major money laundering operation that connected Scotland to Eastern Europe, using Scottish addresses as 'tax havens', was uncovered.

One police officer noted that this caused particular issues relating to intelligence-gathering, with 'social media platforms such as Snapchat and WhatsApp proving particularly problematic and challenging.' As one respondent noted:

Things like WhatsApp and stuff is already tied into organised dealing networks. There's some evidence that within a certain [community] […] there's people that have ordered large amounts off the dark net, and because it's kept within a 'non-offending' community, it's a 'party' community, there's a whole different feel to what's going on (Social worker, Urban Embedded).

As well as the use of 'darkweb' technologies to circumvent traditional supply routes, new internet based platforms were identified as a means of advertising and distributing illicit drugs, on the understanding that police are slow to respond to new technologies. As one participant notes, 'a lot of the business is coming through social media… Skype, Snapchat, Instagram and all the rest of it – they knew that the police were way behind in the investigation techniques and how to use that.' Another participant noted, reflecting upon recent changes in the criminal markets, particularly around drugs supply:

There's a resurgence in the drugs trade that is pharmaceutically…it's the Breaking Bad stuff, it's your chemistry teacher in his shed having watched a YouTube video. I remember when that guy blew himself up in his kitchen … He blew himself right out the window (Police Officer, Urban Embedded).

Alongside such developments, it is clear that new methods of manufacture and distribution have emerged. This extends to the production of counterfeit pharmaceutical products such as Valium or 'legal highs', as well as a shift toward urban cannabis cultivation. Several respondents drew attention to the increase in discovery of 'home' cannabis cultivation. As one participant notes:

You can go down the street and for £100 you can get your propagation greenhouse and a bag full of the topsoil mixed with the right ingredients and your four plants … a lot of the young guys what they were saying is we have to harvest this, we give the three back to the gangster and we keep one.…they get to keep one, that will be for their personal use cause they have that addiction or they owe them that money (Police Officer, Urban Embedded).

The development of localised cannabis cultivation was identified as an important source of cannabis supply, including professional set-ups in which water supply and electricity were illegally routed to avoid detection.

In addition, there was evidence of the diversification of income for traditional SOC groups. Sectors where SOC have gained a foothold have diversified beyond traditional core areas such as security services and taxis, moving into new sectors such as care homes, child care, car washes, funeral care, catering, hospitality, and cleaning services.

Vulnerabilities in particular markets were noted, for example in relation to the management of waste. The waste management industry was perceived as one where such criminal penetration was relatively extensive due to the low levels of regulation and enforcement, alongside the willingness of some customers to 'not ask any questions' when someone will dump their waste for 'half the price'. The costs of compliance with environmental regulations, made such 'discounts' highly attractive to less ethically-scrupulous businesses in the pursuit of maximizing profit.

In sum, what has emerged is a more fragmented criminal market in which the traditional model has been placed under pressure by new actors and technologies. The extent to which new developments will result in a more or less stable, or more or less violent, criminal market are currently unclear. While certain issues such as gangs appear to have become less significant, others have arisen in their place, creating specific issues in relation to intelligence gathering, policing and response.

Mobile markets and criminal networks

While the study determined that much organised crime activity in Scotland remains rooted in local communities, it is important to recognise the ways in which organised crime is layered in Scotland, and linked to broader criminal networks and markets across the UK and internationally.

Evidence from drug market research and policing suggests that the most common route for illicit commodities into Scotland is through the open border with England, with major drug supply routes entering the country by road and rail. The cities of Glasgow, Liverpool, and Manchester have longstanding cultural and trade connections, and it is these cities that featured most prominently in discussions of drug supply routes into Scotland. These networks and connections create additional supply routes and the flexibility of sourcing to Scottish SOC groups. Glasgow and Edinburgh in particular operate as hubs for the onward supply of drugs to their semi-urban and rural hinterlands, extending to the Western Isles and beyond.

As well as established markets in drug supply, a range of other illicit goods and products are routed through transport networks into Scotland via road, rail or sea. Recent years have seen the proliferation and diversification into new markets, including counterfeit pharmaceuticals, alcohol, clothing, medical equipment, and tobacco. Smuggled tobacco is brought in from Eastern Europe, and on some occasions from boats in port in Glasgow and Edinburgh, where tobacco can be bought duty-free in bulk and resold for profit.

The profitability of the heroin trade has however led to an increase in SOC groups from England penetrating markets in north and rural Scotland. These groups use road, train, and bus routes to create steady supply routes in these areas, effectively 'bypassing' the traditional groups in Scotland's central belt and directly accessing other markets in rural areas. A police officer noted the regularity of the trade, with 'young people or low-level patsies acting as couriers'.

This 'mobile market' operated in a different way to those found elsewhere in the country. Instead of an established community base, a flexible drugs market not requiring a strong community infrastructure, was evident. The overall perception was that this form of mobile, flexible market was particularly common in smaller conurbations without an embedded SOC presence. As one housing worker and resident in a rural area stated:

There's an awful lot of folk coming up from [city in north England] and they'll target a house, they'll basically just come into the house and, and they'll take over the house while they're dealing their drugs and giving that tenant what they need so they can use their house and that… The best explanation that I've heard is [in] our area, there's not a firm, like, family that's in control of the drugs. So they're just coming up and taking advantage of that (Police Officer, National Diffuse).

This pattern of the occupation of the premises of a local individual – often with vulnerabilities related to age, addiction or mental health – by mobile criminal actors was repeated often. In one community, for example, court officials described cases in which seven individuals gave the same address when charged; upon checking, the house was allocated to a vulnerable individual. Another housing officer detailed how their staff would 'go to a tenancy that has a single female and... it's all male clothing that's there.'

As well as using these residences for drug dealing, the housing itself might be rendered uninhabitable. As one local worker noted, 'they even stole the doors, they stole the kitchen. They were stealing everything. And the mess and the holes in the walls and everything, the filth was just horrendous.' Police and transport officials discussed the difficulty of disrupting supply due to the ease of travel connections, the profitability of the market, and its resilience to disruptive activity, including enforcement.

These mobile markets were in some instances supported by local criminal groups that facilitated cooperation through loose local 'networks of recognition'. A police officer in an urban embedded site reflected upon the established ways in which such networks are formed and sustained:

They [ OCGs in the local area] are linked to a group in the north [of England] … the group have not come up to supplant the indigenous group as there are no turf wars. Rather they co-operate with drug supply, but also collaborate on some other criminal activities… [they] had a guy living in the area. What the group added was increased capacity in terms of supply and sourcing drugs and increased flexibility in terms of moving drugs north (Police Officer, National Diffuse).

Some of the more consistent illegal trading networks featured ostensibly retired gangsters residing in other parts of the UK or abroad acting as consultants for criminal networks. Such individuals can be highly valued, with criminal connections across the UK, facilitated on occasion through contacts established while serving prison sentences. The deviant ex-pat community has ensured that nodes of illegal commerce and leisure are well-established in Europe and beyond.

During the research, reflections on SOC nominals living 'in one's community' came not only from community respondents in case study areas but also from professional respondents reflecting on their own (often much more affluent) home communities. Whilst these senior SOC offenders may not impact on their doorstep in terms of local criminal activity, their ability to professionally network, to 'pass' as legitimate business actors, and to launder and invest money in areas where they are not necessarily known, were seen as a real threat:

They're not kicking doors in and making threats because that doesn't work. Organisations like this will call the police [….] So… They want to engage, they want to insinuate their way in [….] you know, point to the council grant, point to the council attendance, point to a meeting with the council… And just drop that in to others, even to others who are legitimate, to try and convey that legitimacy (Local Authority Legal Officer, National Diffuse).

This suggests the need to recognise SOC actors not solely through their community roots, but also through the changing routes through which mobile markets and network-facilitated criminal activity occurs. This also suggests the need to shift from presenting organised crime as solely an issue for socially and economically disadvantaged communities to one that extends its reach to all areas of society, including those affluent communities where many 'successful' organised criminals reside.

Diffusion and diversity

The study found no particularly obvious link between organised crime groups and particular patterns of migration, with criminal activity within new migrant communities following a similar pattern to other geographical communities investigated; in which the vast majority within the community were law-abiding and came into little conflict with the law. There was little evidence of meaningful impacts from transnational or migrant SOC groups within the broader community. Nonetheless, there was some evidence that some precarious migrant communities experienced vulnerabilities emerging from limited networks and social capital, and corresponding forms of exploitation, in much the same way as vulnerable groups within urban embedded or semi-urban embedded communities.

As in other case study areas, the most common level of involvement for migrant communities in drug markets was as consumers and low-level user-dealers. This was a pattern of exploitation similar to those found amongst other communities studied, though with the additional advantage for SOC groups that new migrants gave them access to otherwise hard-to-reach 'customers'. In one case, however, there was evidence that individuals from a particular migrant population had successfully become involved as suppliers in local organised crime markets. As one participant, a police officer, noted:

[They] are probably more capable than the local population in terms of OC, they've got the contacts… they're dealing cocaine and cannabis, a lot to their own community, but they're now working alongside and with local criminals (Police Officer, National Diffuse).

The ability to work alongside 'local' organised criminals was important for such groups to gain a foothold in established markets, and is mirrored in the ways in which organised criminals from large urban conurbations in Scotland and elsewhere in the UK seek to penetrate and exploit rural criminal markets.

While it is important to recognise the particular community effects of organised crime activity within migrant communities, it is also important to recognise the potential for negative consequences associated with the stigmatisation and stereotype of specific ethnic groups. Interviews drew attention to the impact of stereotyping of migrant groups within the context of larger political events and sought to emphasise the importance of balance. For one community-based respondent, the focus on more serious SOC activities associated with migrants, notably human trafficking for sexual exploitation, was seen to strengthen negative associations between migration and SOC, whilst diverting attention from the far more widespread reality of labour exploitation in the 'legitimate' economy.

New and precarious migrants were however considered more vulnerable to certain types of SOC victimisation. In particular, the involvement of foreign nationals both as organisers and facilitators of human trafficking was a common official concern. Activities linked to human trafficking – including domestic servitude, migrant labour exploitation, and forced marriage – were noted, and could involve more established members of a migrant community exploiting more vulnerable members of their own community. One legal professional working in the field described how human trafficking could be particularly lucrative:

Human trafficking is a pretty insidious crime but it's also a booming business. Your commodity, your product moves itself, it can hide itself, it doesn't get used up, it continues to produce, it's flexible, it can be used in many different ways and it's basically the best product you could possibly have if you wanted to make money, and do exploitation (Legal Professional, National Diffuse).

These forms of exploitation occurred particularly in industries with weak regulation, such as car washes, but also in more organised business ventures such as factories. Nail bars and cannabis cultivations were mentioned in several police interviews, as well as links to housing provision with landlords exploiting tenants, exchanging rent owed for minimal rates of pay, sometimes based on tenants working in enterprises run by the landlords themselves. Exploitation was also notably associated with more vulnerable sectors of the migrant population, particularly with individuals with an insecure or irregular migrant status.

One of the most difficult and insidious consequences of this pattern of victimisation is the fact that individuals involved may not see themselves as victims. Those individuals who agencies consider to be 'victims' often fail to recognise the harms to which they are subject. While this was noted in several of the communities, it was most notable in relation to national diffuse activity relating to issues such as trafficking and forced labour. As was recounted by two police practitioners in a joint interview:

A lot of them don't see themselves as victims, because they are getting some form of payment, especially construction sites and things like that, and paid a lot more normally than they would back home, so they are effectively doubling their money so they don't see themselves as victims.

That's the big issue, they don't see themselves as victims and at home are considerably worse than where they find themselves now. And although we would view the circumstances they find themselves in now as pretty abhorrent and awful, they don't, so (Police Officers, National Diffuse).

A particularly notable instance of this form of vulnerability and victimisation was a pattern of trafficking from Asia that emerged from several interviews, involving forced labour in nail bars across Scotland. Not unlike the 'push' and 'pull' factors noted above in relation to young Scottish people's involvement in organised crime, the pattern involved young foreign people's recruitment from remote areas and – based on the promise of a better life and facilitated through the use of false documentation – trafficked into the UK for labour exploitation. As a legal professional interviewed during fieldwork remarked:

If you picked five nail bars in Scotland right now in a two mile radius you'd probably walk into them and find somebody being exploited within it, and we're now seeing this network spread across Scotland as well. So it used to be sticking to urban places, Glasgow and Edinburgh really, now it's… random places that you wouldn't expect to find it in Scotland (Legal Professional, National Diffuse).

A police officer with experience of tackling human trafficking in a large urban city reflected on the victim cohort, and explained how there were significant practical hurdles that limited the involvement of 'local' organised criminals in this undoubtedly profitable area of organised crime.

It was notable through this research – in case study areas where there were small concentrations of migrant groups – how isolated some of these groups could be in terms of wider community networks. This may account for the negligible extent to which members of the wider communities had information or concerns about these groups, either as SOC perpetrators or victims. This represents an important intelligence gap for policing, service provision and community support.

Tackling 'diffuse' SOC

The challenges of confronting SOC presented particular challenges when the criminality was highly mobile, or spread across a broader area. Where policing and partners were focused on high-profile, prominent SOC groups, there was ample evidence of success working on a national or cross-border basis. More challenging were instances where SOC groups did not have the prominence to merit this degree of prioritisation, or where groups spread their activities in such a way that they did not register as prominent. For instance, where groups targeted vulnerable households in remote areas, co-opting houses for drug dealing (so called drug gang 'cuckoos'), recognising or acting on the problem was not always easy when local police and partners were not geared up to be looking for SOC activity in the first place. SOC impacts that could be seen as highly significant in a rural context, could nevertheless fail to command national specialist resources when competing with 'big city' SOC.

More discrete, diffuse activity, for instance, involving the sale of counterfeit goods, or the investment of laundered money, could also become particularly difficult when activity was stretched into areas where the individuals concerned were not known to local policing and other local agencies. In these instances, effective intelligence logging, including financial intelligence, and sharing between the police and other allied agencies via available protocols, was particularly critical if organised crime activity was not to disappear into the 'gap' between national organised crime enforcement and local policing.

The restructuring of SOC markets around new digital technologies also poses a profound challenge for policing practices. Technology has collapsed the distances between suppliers and markets, allowing local criminal actors to readily source illicit commodities for themselves via online sources and social media, and to use similar media to discreetly distribute and sell such commodities to local consumers. This allows for the emergence of small criminal enterprises at a local level, running local illicit markets, whilst simultaneously being able to trade and import globally. Within the context of this study, concerns were particularly raised over the ways in which social media had facilitated new drugs markets, with respondents being quick to highlight their own lack of capacity to identify or address these issues.

A further specific challenge presented by SOC were the impacts associated with migrant or foreign national groups. A lack of knowledge of these groups by other community residents, was found to be mirrored in this research – in some instances – with a lack of knowledge amongst local service providers and community organisations. These issues were compounded at times by the fact that individuals may not recognise or report their exploitation. Even where migrants were being exploited, for instance in car washes or similar under-paid service sectors, some viewed the relative indifference of the wider community to this sort of labour exploitation as a barrier to effective recognition and reporting.

The existence of such 'cross-border' crime presents particular challenges in relation to intelligence sharing and the coordination of intelligence development work. The existence of the Scottish Intelligence Database ( SID) and the co-location of agencies at the Scottish Crime Campus ( SCC) at Gartcosh has improved coordination within Scotland to tackle organised crime, although some challenges remain in relation to the ability of those at the frontline to communicate effectively and share intelligence on cross-border matters. Equally, whilst the advent of Police Scotland may have removed the structural barriers of police 'borders' within Scotland, the mobility of SOC groups across Scotland still presented some information sharing and coordination challenges.

Summary

This chapter has documented a number of emergent and diffuse forms of organised crime as they impact on communities in Scotland. Firstly, these involved altering patterns of drug supply and distribution, which circumvent traditional channels, and the rise of home cannabis cultivation. Secondly, these involved mobile criminal groups who establish drug markets in areas without an established SOC presence, or cooperate with local groups. Thirdly, these involved diffuse and diverse forms of organised crime, particularly labour exploitation and human trafficking, that presents particular problems for policing and law enforcement.

Globalisation and rapid technological innovation and change undoubtedly throw up considerable opportunities and challenges for statutory organisations, and for the police in particular, who are more typically organised around traditional geographies of organised criminality. The current direction of change would suggest that the police and partners need to continue to promote greater flexibilty and innovation in their working practices.

Nonetheless, it is clear that local communities remain a critical part of the picture, their importance being that they provide the ultimate site for market transactions that still often centre on knowledge of customers and opportunities, and which require social networks, social capital and trust to operate effectively. For policing and statutory partners, knowledge of locality and of community, and associated opportunities for intervention, regulation and prevention, must remain an invaluable resource.