Criminals to benefit in Brexit chaos

Criminals on both sides of the border could benefit from the increased difficulty, post-Brexit, of EU and British law enforcement agencies in locating and extraditing them, Britain’s national police body has said.

The warning follows serious concerns expressed by Garda Commissioner Drew Harris regarding Britain’s removal from EU criminal justice treaties and its impact on “police-to-police cooperation” between An Garda Síochána and the PSNI.

These treaties cover a wide range of areas, including European arrest warrants, mutual assistance, joint investigation teams, and co-operation in Europol, the EU police agency, as well as access to various criminal and security databases.

Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) said Brexit “will be a key driver of uncertainty in the next five years”.

In its ‘National Strategic Assessment of Serious and Organised Crime 2018’ report, the NCA said criminal gangs were opportunistic in relation to exploiting borders.

“We expect that many will strive to take advantage of the opportunities that Brexit might present, for example from the design and implementation of a new UK customs system or from increased challenges for EU and UK law enforcement in locating and extraditing international fugitives if the UK were to lose enforcement or intelligence sharing tools,” said the report.

At his first press conference on Tuesday, Mr Harris said one of his “primary concerns” in relation to Brexit was police to police cooperation and how it will now work with the PSNI.

“Regrettably, with Brexit, many of the criminal justice co-operation treaties in Europe will fall away and the UK will no longer be a member of those,” he said.

The former PSNI deputy chief constable said police agencies had “done well” out of those various treaties.

“They have been very effective in terms of sharing information and intelligence with others in joint operations,” he said.

Mr Harris said police-to-police co-operation was something he would focus on to make sure the country could be “as best placed as we can for Brexit”.

“No matter what type of border, soft or hard, a border is there and the European treaties that we would rely on in the criminal justice sphere no longer exist and that’s a problem,” he said.

Mr Harris said organised crime might wish to focus on differences in tariffs between one jurisdiction and the other.

The NCA report said there was a “significant interaction” between gangs on both sides of the border and that a recent analysis found that “almost half” of gangs known to the PSNI had “strong links and associations” with organised crime groups in the Republic.

It said many gangs in the North imported drugs from the Republic, often concealed in legitimate goods, via haulage companies, courier networks and personal cars/vans and by public transport.

The latter form of transport was “particularly prevalent” in heroin imports from Dublin.

It said gangs were involved in the smuggling of contraband and counterfeit goods, with oil and tobacco fraud continuing to be a major concern.

It said mobile burglary gangs operated on both sides of the border, that they were “ready to engage in violence”, and that victims or anyone who disturbed their activities (including law enforcement) were at risk.

The NCA said “more than 20% of gangs in the North had “direct links with paramilitary [both loyalist and republican] organisations”.

It added that these gangs were involved in a wide range of criminal activity, including drug-dealing, contraband goods (primarily cigarettes), extortion, protection rackets, and money- laundering.