Posted on 04/03/2006 6:46:42 PM PDT by blam
SAS man bolsters Britain's new FBI
By Thomas Harding and John Steele
(Filed: 04/04/2006)
A former SAS chief has been drafted in to "get a grip" of the new Serious Organised Crime Agency after tensions are said to have arisen in the merging of investigators from bodies including the police and Customs.
Lt Gen Sir Cedric Delves, one of the most distinguished SAS commanders, will oversee intelligence operations by Soca and will give it access to the expertise of undercover surveillance teams at SAS headquarters in Hereford.
The Home Office has called on other military figures, including dozens of colonels close to retirement, to help bring a structured leadership to the agency's 4,200 personnel - a mixture of detectives, Customs drugs investigators and others from the Immigration Service and MI5.
A senior defence source said: "Cedric Delves is going to provide some leadership and management expertise and his links to the more cloak and dagger elements of Government will help, as well as the esteem in which he is held in Hereford.
"The military men will help in running major operations, investigations and bringing organisation to the enterprise. It is a sign of desperation that they have had to bring in these people because they cannot find the experts among their own ranks."
Gen Delves, who retired last year, was awarded the DSO after commanding a team that remained undetected behind enemy lines for 10 days overlooking Port Stanley during the Falklands conflict.
Soca, which some have called a British FBI, was launched by Tony Blair yesterday with a public relations fanfare and a warning from Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, that gangsters who are said to cost the country more than £20 billion a year should "be afraid".
The Prime Minister said the problem of organised crime was "greater than ever before". The level of brutality which many gangs used meant that "we have to do things differently".
He said: "The law has been too weak in recent times and the criminal too strong. With Soca, the balance will shift and we will ensure that the rule of law prevails."
The agency will be headed by a director general, Bill Hughes, a former Hertfordshire chief constable and the head of the National Crime Squad, which has been absorbed in the new body.
Soca's priorities will be the fight against class A drugs, such as heroin and cocaine, and criminals involved in the trafficking and smuggling of immigrants.
It has chosen a fierce big cat - possibly a panther or a sabre-toothed tiger - as its logo. But some people suggested that it resembled the logo of the 1980s children's cartoon series Thundercats.
"....including dozens of colonels close to retirement...."
Somehow, that brings to mind the wrong image.
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