HC Deb 12 June 2002 vol 386 cc1252-3W
13. Mr. Love

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement on the work being done by the Organised Crime Task Force for the next 12 months. [57744]

21. Huw Irranca-Davies

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement on the work of the Organised Crime Task Force to date. [57752]

Jane Kennedy

This year, as last year, the priority areas for concerted multi-agency effort are extortion, drugs, oils-related fraud, tobacco and alcohol duty evasion and money laundering. In addition, we have added two new strategic priority areas: the trade in counterfeit goods and armed robbery. The Organised Crime Task Force has published a range of performance indicators in its year two strategy document, which will be used to judge performance in 12 months time.

17. Dr. Palmer

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement on the work of the Organised Crime Task Force over the past 12 months. [57748]

Jane Kennedy

A year on from the publication of the Task Force's first "Threat Assessment and Strategy", we have seen some truly remarkable successes against organised criminals in Northern Ireland. During the past 12 months, 57 criminal networks have been subject to detailed law enforcement investigation, 43 have had members arrested for a wide range of serious offences and 24 networks have had members successfully prosecuted. As a result of concerted law enforcement activity during the past year, 42 organised crime networks have been disrupted or dismantled.

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