Modern Organised Crime: Networks, Exploitation and the UK Response

Key Takeaways

• Organised crime is highly complex and transnational: UK criminal networks range from small, local groups to large international organisations, exploiting vulnerabilities abroad and leveraging technology to commit fraud, cybercrime, and money laundering.

• Financial systems are a major target: Criminals use cash-intensive businesses and complex financial arrangements to launder illicit funds, making London and the UK’s open economy attractive for organised crime.

• Vulnerable populations are heavily exploited: Migrants, children, and women are often used as tools or coerced into criminal activity, with digital platforms increasingly facilitating recruitment and abuse.

• Government strategy is multi-layered and proactive: The UK tackles organised crime through domestic disruption, border controls, international cooperation, technological capabilities, multi-agency collaboration, and targeted strategies for drugs, fraud, and child protection.

The Scale and Nature of Serious and Organised Crime in the UK

Serious and organised crime is now one of the most significant threats the UK is facing. According to the most recent National Crime Agency (NCA) assessment, more than 5,000 organised crime groups operate across the UK. Some networks are small and family-run operating within a single location, others are large international empires, involved in various aspects of criminality. This is partly due to the exploitation of individuals abroad, which makes detection and apprehension more difficult. Additionally, a significant portion of the expanding technological threat originates overseas, yet the impact is felt directly within the UK.

Serious and organised crime is estimated to cost the UK approximately £37 billion annually. When the balance between profit and risk shifts, organised criminals change their tactics or move into different crime types, seeking always to exploit vulnerabilities in systems. Organised criminal groups often use technology, either to evade detection or commit criminal offences. The networks are complex, which span across continents and rely on trusted transnational relationships.

The harm caused is difficult to quantify because it spans multiple offence types including drugs, fraud, cybercrime, modern slavery, immigration crime and money laundering which are crimes deliberately hidden. Most serious and organised crime is driven by the pursuit of money, seeking maximum profit for maximum risk. Technology remains the single most important enabler. Cybercrime and fraud now account for a substantial proportion of all crime experienced in the UK with fraud alone representing around 40% of offences recorded in the Crime Survey for England and Wales. Cybercrime has grown rapidly because it offers criminal groups a low cost and relatively low risk way to generate significant profit often from jurisdictions where enforcement is insufficient. Organised crime groups communicate and trade on closed criminal forums hosted on undetectable sites where tools services and expertise are bought sold and shared. These forums allow criminals to collaborate internationally share techniques and rapidly adapt to enforcement pressure.

Organised Crime as Business Model

Modern organised crime groups operate much like legitimate businesses. Each group relies on a range of specialist roles. Technical experts write and update malware or adapt existing tools. Network administrators manage compromised devices that form botnets capable of launching attacks at scale. Intrusion specialists gain long term access to victim networks often escalating privileges to reach sensitive data. Data miners extract information in bulk while financial specialists monetise stolen data through resale fraud or extortion.

Many of these specialist roles can be accessed transnationally, with the use of technology. Participants, both voluntary and coerced, are often held within the group through systems of trust and exploitation. Smaller groups and individual offenders can simply purchase crime as a service through criminal marketplaces. Moreover, the groups undermine the UK’s institutional regulations by operating hidden criminal networks. Financial corruption undermines democracies and threatens state legitimacy, which affects regional stability which poses a threat to global security.

Money laundering facilitates and funds organised crime groups and serious crime such as drug-dealing, human trafficking and terrorism. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has brought increased attention to the risks posed by regimes that misuse international financial systems. London continues to be one of the world’s leading financial centres and, combined with the UK’s economic stability and open markets, this makes it especially appealing to those seeking to launder criminal proceeds, whether through complex financial arrangements or cash-based methods.

Exploitation at Scale People as Tools, Not Members

The UK border is a prominent intervention point against serious and organised crime entering the UK, in which advanced capabilities are implemented to prevent people and harmful goods entering the UK. Despite this, exploitation at the border can occur in many different forms: corrupt staff, fraudulent documents, smuggling of goods and people. Criminal groups enable illegal migration to breed across international borders. The groups are extremely exploitative and charge high sums of money for their illegal transportation services, usually with no regard for human safety. To illustrate the severity of the matter, the UK has seen a dramatic increase in the number of small boat arrivals which can be partly attributed to the frequency of organised crime groups in facilitating illegal arrivals.

The global extent of serious and organised crime means it is often highly influenced by events worldwide. Geopolitical instability can have a direct impact on the prevalence of organised crime in the UK, as conflict and disruption create conditions that criminals are quick to exploit. Events such as the situation in Afghanistan in 2021 may have increased displacement and instability, leaving more migrants vulnerable to exploitation by organised crime groups.

Migrants and children are routinely used as logistical assets rather than members of criminal groups. Referrals to the National Referral Mechanism for Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking continue to rise. In 2022 alone, more than 16,000 potential victims were identified with almost half of UK based victims being children - with criminal exploitation including drug distribution one of the most common forms of abuse reported. Many victims are recruited through false job offers both in person and online. Following the recruitment, the victim may find that identity documents are confiscated or earnings withheld, enforced through violence and coercion.

Violence against women and girls tends to be a prominent feature of serious and organised crime groups. The harm inflicted on women and girls is far higher than harm imposed on male victims. Organised crime groups work at the epicentre of modern slavery and human trafficking targeting women and girls and creating relationships with them. Within child sexual abuse offending, males continue to commit most offences (82%) while females make up most victims (79%).

Digital Recruitment and the Transition to Offline Harm

Fundamentally, digital platforms have changed how offenders recruit and engage with victims. Social media messaging applications and online adverts make it easier for criminals to reach vulnerable individuals quickly and at scale, allowing them to groom targets with little oversight or moderation. At the same time, online forums and encrypted channels can normalise and encourage harmful behaviours that can become physical, sexual and financial abuse. According to the National Crime Agency’s 2025 threat assessment, there is a growing overlap between online radicalisation and serious violence, with technological trends such as increased access to communication channels without sufficient safeguards enabling offenders to scale their activity more readily. New technologies, including generative artificial intelligence, are reducing barriers to entry for offenders by improving their efficiency and anonymity, while also creating challenges for law enforcement in identifying and countering these evolving threats.

The UK’s Financial System and Money Laundering Risk

The UK remains attractive to organised crime because of the scale sophistication and openness of its financial systems. The NCA estimates that £12 billion of criminal cash is generated in the UK each year, which is typically smuggled out of the country or integrated into the legitimate financial system using a variety of laundering techniques. Cash-intensive businesses such as barbershops, vape shops, nail bars, American-themed sweet shops and car washes are often used by criminals to conceal the origins of illicit cash. Crime gangs use them to enter cash into the financial system, mixing legitimate funds with criminal profits to hinder subsequent law enforcement investigations. They are known to buy such businesses using the proceeds of crime, which provides them with a legitimate income and opportunities for money laundering.

As of December 2023, there were 87,864 individuals in custody, with HM Prison and Probation Service estimating that around 10.6% of the prison population is involved in serious and organised crime. Among the 251, 926 individuals managed by probation in the community, approximately 3.9% are assessed as having links to serious and organised crime. Within the prison estate a range of restrictions and disruption measures are used to reduce the risk of prisoners being recruited into organised crime groups. However, in practice organised crime groups often view prisons as opportunities to strengthen and extend their networks, creating an environment in which other prisoners may be drawn into or coerced towards involvement in serious and organised crime. Offenders with experience in laundering illicit funds may use these networks to advise, recruit, or coerce other prisoners into participating in financial crimes, such as integrating cash from drug trafficking, fraud, or other criminal enterprises into legitimate businesses. This not only strengthens the operational capacity of organised crime groups outside prison but also perpetuates the flow of illicit funds through the UK’s financial system, exploiting vulnerabilities in cash-intensive businesses and formal banking channels.

Case Study

In 2025, Operation Machinize was launched to tackle barbershops and other cash-intensive businesses during a three-week crackdown on high street crime. In total, 380 premises were visited across England, where officers secured freezing orders over bank accounts totalling more than £1m, executed 84 warrants and made 35 arrests. The operation saw 55 individuals questioned about their immigration status and a further 97 individuals safeguarded in relation to potential modern slavery. In addition, officers seized more than £40,000 in cash, some 200,000 cigarettes, 7,000 packs of tobacco, over 8,000 illegal vapes and two vehicles. Two cannabis farms were also found, containing a total of 150 plants. Since the investigation, ten shops have been shut, with further closures expected as a result of the on-going operation.

Assessing the Impact and Measuring Harm

Measuring the scale of organised crime is increasingly difficult, because most criminality is hidden. However, there are two methods in which the UK measure the impact of serious and organised crime.  First, The NCA National Strategic Assessment of Serious and Organised Crime and secondly, the published crime figures for offences that are linked to serious and organised crime. The National Strategic Assessment has assessed that illicit drugs, fraud, modern slavery and human trafficking, money laundering, organised acquisitive crime and organised immigration crime are likely to be associated with organised crime groups. The National Strategic Assessment highlights several key trends, including the method in which organised crime groups capitalise on vulnerabilities created by international conflict, instability and poverty. It also notes that criminals increasingly exploit personal and financial pressures, using the cost-of-living crisis to draw victims into cybercrime and fraud. Technology continues to play a central role in enabling serious and organised crime, with tools becoming more accessible to offenders. In addition, organised crime groups are shown to be highly adaptable, operating across borders with little regard for legal constraints and adjusting their methods in response to changing conditions, including the UK’s exit from the EU and the Covid 19 pandemic.

Source: HM Government Serious and Organised Crime Strategy 2023-2028

Challenges in Detection and Enforcement

An important tool used to detect criminal networks is the Organised Crime Group Mapping (OCGM). The system allows the NCA and organised crime units to share intelligence. Through the mapping system, agencies can identify how individuals are connected, what crimes are being committed and how much risk they pose. However, criminals can commit offences undetected, using offshore accounts and international transfers, using multiple burner phones, encrypted communication apps and coercion to keep lower-level members silent.

It is believed that a significant proportion of serious and organised crime linked activity takes place within local communities without being reported or recognised as part of organised crime. This can include offences such as extortion and kidnap, which often operate below the threshold of formal reporting but causes significant fear harm and disruption to victims and communities.

While governments work across borders to address these threats, international responses are often uneven, allowing offenders to take advantage of gaps between jurisdictions. Law enforcement agencies also face ongoing pressures around technology capability and resources, whereas criminals can draw on global online markets and increasingly professional services to support their activity. As a result, despite major initiatives a persistent gap remains between the pace of criminal innovation and the ability of authorities to respond.

The UK Government’s Strategic Response to Organised Crime

The UK Government has set out a comprehensive and coordinated approach to disrupting and dismantling organised crime, recognising that the threat is complex, adaptive and increasingly transnational. Central to this strategy is the understanding that enforcement alone is insufficient and must be supported by prevention, partnership and capability development. The approach focuses on reducing criminal capability, removing profit, protecting vulnerable people and strengthening the systems criminals seek to exploit.

1.       In-country: A strong domestic response to disrupt and dismantle organised crime groups operating within the UK. Dealing with the impact of organised crime, building resilience and working to divert those vulnerable to being recruited by organised groups.

2.       UK Border: To make every effort in disrupting organised crime at the border. This includes intervening and cutting off the supply of illegal commodities.

3.       International: Using intelligence to cut off supply at the source and reducing the incentives for criminals targeting the UK. This includes coordinating with wider activity to stem the flow of illegal migration to the UK.

4.       Technology and Capabilities: To ensure intelligence and data collection are in a state to identify and disrupt criminal networks.

5.       Multi-agency Response: To ensure all public and private sector partners are working collaboratively.

Alongside the five main lines of action, the 10-Year Drugs Strategy, backed by a £300 million investment over three years aims to disrupt drug supply chains and make it harder for criminal groups to operate in the UK. The Government’s Fraud Strategy sets out plans to cut fraud at its source by creating a dedicated National Fraud Squad and enhancing prevention and reporting measures, while efforts to reduce child sexual abuse continue under a separate national strategy that brings together enforcement and support for victims.

In summary, the UK Government’s strategy to tackle serious and organised crime takes a multi-layered approach that combines disruption, prevention, and partnership. By targeting criminal networks domestically, strengthening border controls, and coordinating internationally, the government seeks to reduce criminal capability and remove profit incentives. Investment in technology, intelligence, and multi-agency collaboration ensures that law enforcement can respond effectively to evolving threats, while dedicated strategies for drugs, fraud, and child protection address high-priority areas of harm. Overall, the strategy recognises that tackling organised crime requires a comprehensive, proactive, and adaptable framework that protects vulnerable individuals and safeguards the integrity of the UK’s financial and social systems.