Serious Organised Crime Agency

The Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), "an FBI-style national law-enforcement body," is "the UK's first attempt to set up a single body to tackle major organised crime. The two main police services which previously dealt with organised crime, the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) and the National Crime Squad (NCS), have been merged into a single body. Additionally, relevant parts of Customs and Excise and the immigration service have been merged into the new body," Guardian Unlimited (UK) reported April 4, 2006.

"An 11-person board has been appointed by the Home Office, chaired by former MI5 director-general Sir Stephen Lander. Former NCS director-general Bill Hughes will remain as director-general of Soca." [1]

Related SourceWatch Resources

• transnational organized crime

External links

• "Blair launches FBI-style crime squad," Guardian Unlimited (UK), April 3, 2006.
• "Tony Blair Launches `British FBI' to Fight Organized Crime," Bloomberg News, April 3, 2006.
• Matthew Jones, "'FBI' crime-fighting unit launched," Reuters (London), April 3, 2006.
• George Wright and David Fickling, "Q&A: The Serious Organised Crime Agency," Guardian Unlimited (UK), April 4, 2006.
• "£457m 'FBI' squad to target serious crime," Daily Mail (UK), April 4, 2006.
• Stewart Tendler and Richard Ford, "'Soca' steps in to take on gangs. Agency will tackle crimelords, human traffickers and fraudsters," Times Online (UK), April 4, 2006.
• Thomas Harding and John Steele, "SAS man bolsters Britain's new FBI," Telegraph (UK), April 4, 2006.
• Tom Gordon, "Crime unit launched to ‘make life hell’ for gangs," The Herald (UK), April 4, 2006.
• James Kirkup, "UK's 'FBI' to hit crime chiefs," The Scotsman, April 4, 2006.
• Alan Travis, "Crime-busting ideas imported from the US," Guardian Unlimited (UK), April 4, 2006.
• Christine Seib, "FBI-style agency to poach top cases from Serious Fraud Office," Times Online (UK), April 4, 2006.