Millions of pounds’ worth of British international aid is being appropriated for organised criminals by corrupt foreign officials, according to reports.
The revelations come as the National Crime Agency (NCA) — devised as Britain’s answer to America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) — and the Home Office under Sajid Javid unveil their National Strategic Assessment of Serious Organised Crime and their long-term plan to tackle it, respectively.
“Serious and organised crime is the most deadly national security threat faced by the UK, and persistently erodes our economy and our communities,” Javid declared in his foreword to his new strategy document.
“Serious and organised criminals operating in the UK sexually exploit children and ruthlessly target the most vulnerable, ruining lives and blighting communities,” he added, admitting that the criminals’ activities “cost us at least £37 billion each year.”
Turning to the global nature of the “criminal web” the United Kingdom has become ensnared in, Javid described a “direct link between the drugs being sold on our streets, including the violence linked to that trade, the networks trafficking vulnerable children and adults into the UK and corrupt politicians and state officials overseas who provide services and safe haven for international criminal networks.”
According to the Daily Mail, one of the ways Britain has been targetted is through its exorbitant and controversial foreign aid budget, which sees Britain splurge around £14 billion a year around the world despite significant cutbacks to public services at home and a need for investment in Brexit preparedness.
The newspaper revealed that the NCA is currently conducting a “number” of investigations into what it described as “cash being stolen or even handed to crime syndicates in poverty-stricken countries by their own corrupt regimes.”
“Criminals are continuing to develop international connections to increase the reach of their activity, and to maximise profits,” commented NCA Director-General Lynne Owens
“We are also seeing ever-increasing crossover between crime threats, with finance at the heart of this. Organised criminals involved in smuggling of people or firearms also supply drugs, and the relationship between organised immigration crime and modern slavery is becoming more apparent.