Author: Dan Mcdougall
Publication: Scotsman.com
Date: August 2, 2004
URL: http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=883762004
Key points
* Police blame millions of pounds of gang fraud on disbanding Asian crime
unit
* 'Operation Gadher' disbanded over fears it would be seen as racist
* Warnings from 1998 that violent crime and fraud by Asian gangs growing
Key quote
"Criminality is criminality regardless of race, gender or creed, and
fear of being labelled as institutionally racist should never interfere with
police work" - Police source
Story in full DETECTIVES investigating what
is believed to be the biggest fraud in Scottish criminal history believe it
could have been prevented if a unit created to tackle the threat of Asian
gangs had not been disbanded over fears that it could be seen as persecuting
ethnic minorities.
The Scotsman has learned that detectives from
Strathclyde Police are investigating a massive financial fraud, believed to
involve tens of millions of pounds and at least three major Asian crime gangs
from the South side of Glasgow.
According to senior police sources, such is
the scale of the complex international fraud, believed to involve a number
of major banking institutions, that the force may have to call in assistance
from other constabularies, such as West Midlands Police, the Metropolitan
Police and even Interpol.
The discovery of the elaborate scheme - whose
specifics cannot be detailed for legal reasons - and the vast criminal network
behind it involving people of Asian origin has led to urgent calls from Strathclyde
detectives for the re-establishment of Operation Gadher, created specifically
to tackle the troubling growth of Asian gang culture.
Despite the resounding success of Operation
Trident, a Metropolitan Police initiative to combat "black on black"
crime in London, Strathclyde's unit dedicated to Asian crime was disbanded
last October over fears among senior officers that the nature of the investigation
was not politically correct.
The decision to abandon the operation, which
it is claimed led to a number of investigations being scaled down, was made
with the full consent of Strathclyde's Chief Constable, Willie Rae, and a
number of other top officers.
According to one police source, in light of
the huge fraud inquiry and even the murder of the Glasgow teenager Kriss Donald
earlier this year - allegedly at the hands of an Asian gang - the decision
not to focus keenly on Asian crime in the city no longer looks foolhardy but
negligent.
He said: "The reality is Asian crime
in Glasgow is causing concern, not least because of links between Asian criminal
gangs in London and Birmingham, but because of their involvement in a wide
range of crimes, from financial and credit-card fraud to money-laundering
and perhaps more concerningly, drugs."
He added: "In light of some existing
investigations into the Asian criminal fraternity, there is a great deal of
anger among detectives that Operation Gadher and its forerunners were stood
down."
The source added: "From a policing perspective,
criminality is criminality regardless of race, gender or creed, and fear of
being labelled as institutionally racist should never interfere with police
work.
"If there are concerns about crime within
one particular ethnic minority - as we saw with Operation Trident in London,
and attempts by Greater Manchester Police to crack down on crimes perpetrated
by the Chinese community in the city - then those concerns need to be addressed
using all the resources you have to hand and, if needs be, a dedicated team
of officers to look at it.
"There are many Strathclyde officers
who were originally involved in Gadher who believe that a number of ongoing
inquiries at the moment may have been nipped in the bud eight to 12 months
ago."
As early as January 1998, senior officers
within Strathclyde were warned by their own intelligence units that large-scale
fraud and violent crime carried out by Asian gangs in the Pollokshields area
of Glasgow, which houses Scotland's biggest Pakistani and Indian community,
could spiral out of control unless they cracked down on the ringleaders.
At the time, police chiefs commissioned Operation
Barber to investigate the scale of the problem, leading to intelligence officers
naming 220 individuals as potential threats.
The subsequent report on Asian gangs stated:
"Almost all the drug trafficking is being run through the 'Pollokshields
Team', who have a city-wide reputation for being ruthless with anyone who
threatens their position."
Although it was never officially confirmed
by the police, one of the names on the extensive list was believed to be an
individual whom police are still seeking in connection with the abduction
and murder of Kriss Donald in March this year.
Despite intelligence gathered by the Operation
Barber team and the recommendations that urgent action be taken to try to
penetrate Asian gangs in the city, the inquiry was effectively put on hold
until 2002, when a second investigation, entitled Operation Gadher, was established.
In October last year, as revealed in The Scotsman,
it was halted.
Last night, a Strathclyde Police spokeswoman
refused to comment on the growth of Asian crime in the city or on Operation
Gadher.
She said: "From a police perspective
we take all crimes seriously ... regardless of who is breaking the law."
