Our View: Organised crime crackdown must deliver convictions

Police carried out one of the biggest ever nationwide operations against organised crime on Thursday when 26 people were taken in for questioning, search warrants were executed in 27 premises and vehicles, 37 mobile phones were confiscated, while €25,000, two guns and cartridges found; a small quantity of drugs was also found. Five-day remand orders were issued against four of the detainees while the rest were released. The operation, codenamed Plegma, follows an investigation that started in February after police had found 233.5kg of drugs (167kg of cannabis and 62kg of cocaine). This led to the arrest of five suspects, who have been charged in the criminal court and await trial. Thursday’s arrests are linked to the five suspects awaiting trial and are part of a broader operation targeting organised crime and its operations including distribution networks and funding. The directorate for combating organised crime – referred to as the ‘Cypriot FBI’ – which was officially launched last month and operates under the model of intelligence-based policing carried out the Plegma operation assisted by police’s rapid response unit, Mmad. It is made up of four sub-divisions: intelligence and special operations, combatting drug trafficking, investigating organised crime and strategic analysis. The main objective of the directorate is to act proactively, through data analysis and the gathering of criminal intelligence, rather than reacting when a crime is committed. Part of the directorate’s strategy is also to deprive organised crime of financial resources. So far, according to the head of the directorate, Christos Andreou, some €750,000 worth of assets such as money in the bank, vehicles and real estate have been seized. The justice ministry hailed the operation as an important step in the fight against organised crime and praised the police officers involved in the operation. It was indeed an important step as was the idea to set up a unit for intelligence-based policing, but we expect to see much more from the new directorate, before we can call it a success. So far, nobody has been convicted, although the investigations have been broadened and more people that could be linked to the big February drug find have been remanded in custody. It is of vital importance for the Plegma operation and ongoing investigations to result in convictions because the authorities have never had a real victory over organised crime and, by victory we mean putting criminals behind bars, confiscating their assets and dismantling their distribution networks. This will not end the drug trafficking as it is a very lucrative business and others will move into market opening, but it is still important to show organised crime that it does not have a free pass.