CRACKDOWN ON WHITE COLLAR CRIMINALS BEHIND DRUGS TRADE

Anti-Mafia Initiative Used As Model For Scottish Purge

Lawyers, accountants and estate agents who oil the wheels of the drug
trade are to be targeted by an elite crime-fighting unit and
specialist prosecutors similar to those battling the Mafia in Italy.

In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Herald, the head of the
SDEA (Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency), Graeme Pearson, promised
that 2006 would see a "significant shift in focus" in drugs law
enforcement towards hunting down and prosecuting the white-collar
professionals who prop up organised crime in Scotland.

Pearson said: "Historically, the police service's focus has been only
on the criminals, but we know that those on the periphery - the
lawyers, accountants, estate agents - are enabling organised
criminals to run their businesses.

"We will be focusing heavily on these people this year, because
without them the money-laundering and the business deals could not happen."

Pearson has also revealed that "early discussions" had taken place
with Crown Office officials about emp loy ing specialist prosecutors
on the project. The model would mirror that adopted by the FBI in
America, anti-Mafia investigators in Italy and the New York Police
Department, who work hand in glove with special prosecutors assigned
to deal with organised crime.

"We've raised with the Lord Advocate the prospect of having
experienced prosecutors on site who would oversee the work we're
engaged in and set a strategy for investigations," Pearson said.

"When you look around the world, it's when the FBI and the New York
Police Department attached specialist prosecutors to themselves that
they had the big impact on organised crime, when the Italians started
to smash the organised crime groups and lock up hundreds of mafiosi.

"With the prosecutor at the end of the corridor, they will know cases
as they progress and direct us towards gathering the evidence they
know will be vital to them to secure a conviction. They can say:
'Never mind the white powder or the pile of money, if you connect him
to him, I'll get a conviction.'"

The SDEA has already hosted a closed meeting in November with
European and US money-laundering experts to discuss ways of tracking
the elusive finances of organised criminals.

Pearson said: "Criminals have great difficulty running businesses,
and getting rid of dirty money. They can't hide it under the bed or
store it in a van somewhere because it's too vulnerable. They don't
have the business acumen or experience, and at some stage they need
to access white-collar professionals.

"They enable the purchase of houses, they draw up the contracts, they
help to purchase legitimate businesses with the intention of
laundering money through them, they secure credit and insurance policies.

"Quite clearly these people know who their clients are and that they
are involving themselves in criminal activity."

In response to the threat posed by the "small minority" of
professionals engaged in organised crime, the agency has held talks
with regulatory bodies, such as the Law Society of Scotland and the
Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, to discuss mutual
support in rooting out crooked members.

His aim, he said, was to "up the risk" for organised criminals who
operate in Scotland and to run them out of the country.

Pearson also revealed his "impatience" for the development of the
world's first "crime campus" in Gartcosh, North Lanarkshire, which
would bring together the SDEA - under its new name, the Scottish
Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency - along with the National Criminal
Intelligence Service, Customs and Excise and the newly created
Serious Organised Crime Agency.

A spokeswoman for the Law Society of Scotland said it supported the
SDEA purge on white collar professionals. She added that the society
had already run a series of seminars to train solicitors on how to
spot when clients may be trying to launder criminally acquired money
through legal transactions.

Dr Tom McMorrow, executive director of the regulation and compliance
department at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland,
said: "Changing black money into white is what makes the criminal
world go round.

"It's very rare to prosecute white-collar criminals as evidence is so
difficult to get. Out of 100 pieces of evidence, you maybe only get
one or two nuggets, so you have to know what you're looking for.

"What has impressed me is the intention to recruit the best of
police, lawyers and accountants, because unless you do that you won't
bring back success, you're just whistling in the wind.

"Through the actions of the Scottish Executive and self-regulation
within the accountancy profession they're making it difficult for
white-collar criminals in Scotland to survive."

McMorrow added: "I can see Scotland becoming a real centre of
financial integrity."

A spokesperson for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service
said: "The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service relies on a
number of different agencies reporting all suspected criminal
activity from across the country. The SDEA will continue to perform a
vital role in this process, with a particular emphasis on serious and
organised crime."

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Executive said: "Serious organised
crime causes extensive and lasting damage to communities across
Scotland. The police have a duty to uphold the law, so it's only
right that, should the SDEA officers have reason to believe that
individual professionals are aiding criminal activities, they take
action against this."