Former Shropshire police officer leading new National Crime Agency
A police chief from Shropshire who is heading "Britain's FBI" has warned the Mr Bigs of the underworld there will be "no one beyond the reach" of a new crime-fighting agency that started work today.
The National Crime Agency will be led by Keith Bristow, from Bridgnorth, who was a senior officer at West Mercia Police before going on to be Chief Constable of Warwickshire Police.
He said today: "To be clear, there will be no one beyond the reach of law enforcement or beyond the reach of the NCA.
"Those people involved in the most horrible activities can expect the most comprehensive and robust response."
The launch of the NCA spells the end of the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), which is to be absorbed into the new organisation.
Proposals for the new agency were first unveiled by Home Secretary Theresa May in July 2010 as part of a broader shake-up of the policing landscape.
The new body has been likened to America's FBI. It takes on the roles of Soca, which focused on intelligence-gathering, but will have a more high-profile police-led response.
Mr Bristow said: "Our top priority is continuously to disrupt criminal groups by bringing them to justice, taking their assets off them, using every lawful and ethical technique that we have available to make their criminal lifestyles as difficult as possible.
"We're going to be visible. We want the public to know who we are, what we do, what we're delivering, to understand the serious and organised crime threat that effects every neighbourhood and every citizen throughout the UK."
"Frankly, we want the criminals to know who we are, because we want them to fear our attention."
