Looking at Fast Parcels, organised crime, and operator communication, ‘We are asking for eyes and ears.’
Detective Chief Inspector attending along with the presenting officer Josh Thornton and a ROCU team from the West Midlands region with an Intelligence Manager from the UK Boarder force. Andrew Booth from the home office. ‘The focus is on the courier networks being used as distribution for organised crime and I believe issues around organised internet Fraud.’ (Sensitive material has not been extended beyond the round table.)
What can be said is Josh Thornton did introductions from a strong team via West Midlands regional crime unit that sits above regional level. Case studies discussed remained private, from organised crime to a talk to operators on tactics. ‘There has been large growth in Fast transport crime. Josh spoke about drugs being moved in the fast transport networks. 2.5kg is a fairly standard parcel weight. 6000 parcels recorded on last year. Josh spoke Cannabis, Sodium Nitrate, Meth. Firearms are a concern, as are knives and other weapons.
Andrew Booth from Home office intelligence Air Cargo, we work collaboratively on serious organised crime, we need your eyes and ears. We work across govt and with partners, prioritising organised crime. Andrew focused on Pakistan parcels of drugs, it breaks down quickly to largely anonymous packets, these packets may appear to have UK trader send labels and consignment notes, it is easy to conceal a few boxes in a multi tonne load. We have looked at first mile, boxes delivered by cars into local stores. These chains grow quickly to tens of kilos of drugs at source. A number of case studies followed showcasing serious organised crime on a massive scale across freight boarders. Your staff on the ground will now when they see something wrong, we need their intelligence. Andrew shared a variety of email contacts.