Guns sent to Ukraine ‘could be sold to terrorists’
Weapons supplied by the West to help Ukraine fight Russia could end up in the hands of criminal gangs or terrorists in Britain, the head of the National Crime Agency has warned.
Graeme Biggar said law-enforcement officials across Europe were on the lookout for machineguns, pistols and grenades being sold on in a potentially lethal form of “blowback” from the conflict.
Biggar, who leads the UK’s fight against serious and organised crime, said he had discussed the threat with Ukraine’s police chief.
“As with any conflict, when weapons pour in there is a risk of blowback,” he said. “At the end of the conflict, there are surplus weapons that get into the hands of criminals or terrorists.”
In his first interview since being appointed director-general of the NCA, Biggar:
• Disclosed that intelligence gathered by British agents had blocked the sale of at least eight superyachts, four private jets and “numerous” properties linked to Russian kleptocrats.
• Claimed auction houses and public-relations companies in London were acting as “enablers” for the transfer of corrupt money.
• Vowed to go after the kingpins or “controlling minds” of the drugs and human-trafficking trades by taking the work of his organisation “upstream”.
• Accused tech giants, including Google, of failing to do enough to tackle online child sex abuse and the smuggling of migrants across the Channel in small boats.
An Oxford-educated civil servant, Biggar, 48, is the first person to lead the NCA who is not a former chief constable.
He was made director-general in August after a controversial recruitment process in which Downing Street sought to interfere to install Boris Johnson’s preferred candidate,
Lord Hogan-Howe, the discredited former Metropolitan Police commissioner.
Biggar said the NCA’s “combating kleptocracy” cell had carried out 85 “disruptions” — or actions — since February, when Russia invaded Ukraine.
Biggar was reluctant to be drawn, but pointed out that his previous jobs had “largely been about keeping the people of this country safe” and that police chiefs had been “incredibly welcoming and supportive” of his appointment.
As a former director of national security at the Home Office, he helped shape the government’s response to the 2017 terror attacks and the Salisbury poisonings by Russian spies the following year.
He joined the NCA in 2019 and had been its interim head since last October, when Dame Lynne Owens stepped down after a breast cancer diagnosis.
Although his organisation has a huge remit — ranging from online fraud to corruption and kidnapping — a significant amount of his time continues to be taken up by Russia and the fallout from its invasion of Ukraine.
A few weeks ago, he met Ukraine’s national police chief to discuss concerns including the threat of firearms falling into the hands of criminals and terrorists, as was the case after the 1990s Balkans conflicts.
“To their credit — despite the fact that they are operating on the front line and dealing with war crimes and so on — they are really focused on that issue as well,” Biggar said. “They are looking at what weapons are in the country and who has them.”
He said there was no evidence yet of any weapons being sold to criminals. However, he added: “We are working really closely with Europol and with other European countries to make sure that we’re all on the lookout for this.”
The NCA’s main response to the conflict has been through a newly created “combating kleptocracy” cell, which targets corrupt elites.
Biggar said the unit had carried out 85 “disruptions” — or actions — since February, when Russia invaded.
This included the arrest last month of
Graham Bonham-Carter, a London-based businessman and second cousin of the actress Helena Bonham Carter, who is accused by the US of helping Oleg Deripaska, the Russian oligarch, to evade US sanctions. Bonham-Carter, 62, is alleged to have run a private family office for Deripaska. He denies any wrongdoing.
Biggar believes such entities are among “enablers” or “facilitators” in the UK — including lawyers, accountants and estate agents — that handle suspect Russian cash.
Asked to point to other enablers, Biggar said: “It is auction houses who are buying and selling art and allowing that to happen without being utterly clear [about the identity of buyers and sellers]. It is PR companies who are helping to launder reputations.
“It’s private security organisations who provide protection for individuals when they are here. There are a whole range of people from sectors — much of which are legitimate — that end up supporting what they must suspect is corrupt money.”
Intelligence gathered by the combating-kleptocracy cell and shared with international partners has also led to freezing orders being slapped on eight yachts, four aircraft and a series of Russian-linked properties in Britain, Europe, North America and elsewhere, according to Biggar.
He said such work — which often involves unmasking shell companies in numerous jurisdictions — is “important to the integrity of the UK and the confidence that people can have in our institutions”.
Created in its current guise in 2013, the NCA employs about 6,000 staff, making it equivalent in size to the sixth-largest police force in the UK. Although many are former police officers, they also include ex-border security and customs officials.
Much of its work is intelligence-led and more in line with MI5 than frontline policing, according to Biggar, who, like
Ken McCallum, the director-general of the security service, was born in Glasgow.
Although he said frequent comparisons to the FBI are “flattering”, Biggar, who was appointed on a £223,000 salary for five years insisted: “We are our own organisation.”
While combating the drugs trade — including through on-the-ground support and police training in countries such as Colombia — would remain crucial, Biggar said more resources needed to be directed to the huge shift in crime online, including fraud and child sex abuse and exploitation.
He claimed indecent images of children could be found on the internet through Google in just “four clicks”. He also pointed out that in many cases those who were caught got off lightly, with a suspended prison sentence.
Social media companies have also been blamed for fuelling illegal Channel crossings by hosting adverts for people-smuggling gangs.
Although the tech giants have been taking down unlawful content or making it harder to access, Biggar, who is married with three teenage children, said: “It’s still not good enough . . . There needs to be a stronger responsibility on them to not make the world worse.”
