London, July 29 (IANS) Britain will launch a crime tackling agency in 2013, built on the lines of America’s FBI, officials said.
The National Crime Agency will herald ‘a much tougher approach to organised crime’, and will tackle drug gangs and fraudsters, the Daily Express reported.
It will replace the Serious Organised Crime Agency and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre. It will also house the cyber crime unit and cover economic crime and border policing.
‘Organised crime is a serious problem in this country. We want to stem the flow of organised criminality, to be able to strengthen the law enforcement response and safeguard people,’ Home Office Minister James Brokenshire was quoted as saying.
He said the impact of crime could be seen through online fraud and on the streets through drug-dealing.
The Home Office earlier said that law enforcement agencies recovered, froze or returned one billion pounds worth of criminal assets.
Of that figure, 161 million pounds worth of items included watches, diamonds and sports cars. Crime victims were given back a total of 49 million pounds.
