SCOTS FACING NEW THREAT FROM ETHNIC DRUG GANGS

SCOTLAND is facing an unprecedented drugs threat from organised criminals
in mainland Europe operating undercover within ethnic groups, a leading
expert warned yesterday.

Rob Wainwright, the UK's chief liaison officer at Europol, said
manufacturing and trafficking in illicit drugs was now the principal
activity of organised crime.

Mr Wainwright warned the Scottish Police Drugs Conference at Dunblane that
Europe was "particularly vulnerable" to the threat.

Deputy Justice Minister Richard Simpson used the conference to unveil a new
strategy aimed at winning the hearts and minds of young people in the war
against drugs.

Dr Simpson admitted that authoritarian messages and finger-wagging, had not
been effective in persuading them not to take drugs.

And he acknowledged that the war against drugs could not be won by relying
on "shock horror tactics alone".

Dr Simpson insisted the Executive was not soft on drugs but hinted that
cannabis would be reclassified to a Class C drug following a review by Home
Secretary David Blunkett, an-nounced last October.

First Minister Jack McConnell threw his weight behind the war on drugs,
vowing that half the money recovered from criminal activity in Scotland
would be retained for tackling drug misuse.

He revealed a deal had been struck with the UK Treasury to use some of the
confiscated. proceeds of all crimes in Scotland to help addicts come off
drugs and boost education schemes.

More than 90% of hard drugs consumed in Europe are trafficked by foreign gangs.

Mr Wainwright told the con-ference: "The diverse ethnic and cultural
communities which make up Europe - with their historical and other ties to
other parts of the world - provide a ready-made supportive infrastructure
for a range of different ethnic organised crime groupings.

"Powerful and violent other ethnic groups are making an increasing impression.

"Russian, Polish, Columbian, Turkish, Nigerian, Albanian are to name a few.

"The single and free market, with little or no frontier checks, and some
350 million relatively rich inhabitants provide a particularly fertile
hunting ground for them.

"There is a relatively high and consistent demand for drugs in Europe."

Mr Wainwright said figures showed that at least 45 million people in Europe
have used illicit drugs.

And he warned: "We are faced by an inherently dynamic threat which
constantly evolves to the environment in which it operates."

He said today's drugs gangs are profit-driven and use mod-ern business
management techniques to run their organis-ations, identify gaps in the
market, and develop market-based strategies.

"They are becoming smaller and more mobile and harder to detect - gone are
the days of the large monolithic organisations with recognisable hierarchies.

"All the organised crime groups ate increasingly using professional
advisers - accountants, lawyers. IT specialists including hackers, and bankers.

"They are increasingly mixing their business between the legal and the
illegal, which blurs the investigative profile."

Mr Wainwright said the Netherlands and Belgium remained "key staging posts'
in the international drugs trade.

Up to 200 tonnes of pure heroin are being trafficked into Europe each year,
despite disruption to the supply by the war in Afghanistan.

Mr Wainwright said Europe's police forces need to "raise their game" to
match the foreign criminal networks.

He said the new common arrest warrant which should be available by 2003,
would be "a significant step forward" in the war against drug crime.

But he warned: "We are still only playing at co-operation in Europe, while
criminals are becoming increasingly resourceful and adaptable, giving rise
to an increasing drugs problem."

In his speech to more than 200 delegates at the conference, Dr Simpson said
much progress had been made with Scotland's drugs strategy, which he
explained was focused on reaching out to young people, community- based
rehabilitation, treatment of drug addicts and tackling drug availability.

And he said the Executive had ploughed 130million pounds over three years
into Scotland's drugs strategy, which was helping to break new ground.

"It is estimated that there are now nearly 56,000 problem drug users in
Scotland. Almost 23,000 of them are injecting.

"In the year 2000, there was a slight fall in the number of drug-related
deaths in Scotland to 292, but each death represents a tragedy for the
victim, for: their families and for the community. We must do more to
reduce the scale of misery and wasted lives."

Dr Simpson said the results of the review on cannabis were expected soon
and insisted: "If cannabis were to be reclassified to Class C, this is not,
of course, the same as decriminalisation or legalisation.

"Possession and supply would remain criminal offences, with maximum
penalties of two years imprisonment for possession and five years for supply.

"Let me be clear Realistic reclassification does not mean that the UK
Government or the Scottish Executive is soft on drugs.

"But the reality is that most police time should be spent on tackling the
most harmful drugs, particularly Class A drugs."