As Britain prepared for National Drugs Week starting on Monday, senior West Yorkshire Police officers today pledged to continue to pursue people who live off drug addiction and to claw back their illegal wealth through court confiscation orders.
Today we name and shame 14 men convicted of a range of serious drugs offences, including trafficking, possession with intent to supply, conspiracy to supply and production as well as many money laundering offences.
Specialist financial investigators from the force's economic crime unit have trawled the finances of the 14 convicted drugs criminals and secured confiscation orders worth a total of £1,155,561 using the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
Fortune
Det Chief Supt Max Mclean, pictured, head of West Yorkshire Police crime division told the criminals making a fortune from drugs: "We will not only put you before the courts, we will also use the latest legislation to strip you of the ill-gotten gains you've generated from those crimes."
"We want people who damage our communities with illegal drugs to feel the full weight of the law, but we also want to put them out of business permanently by taking their profits. The beauty of the Proceeds of Crime Act is that it gives us the ability to demonstrate clearly that crime does not pay."
He revealed that the sting in the tail of every confiscation order is that where criminals fail to pay up, they can receive an additional jail sentence and the debt will still not be erased.
Criminals can never be clear of the fear that at any time they can be ordered to hand over any illegal cash they may acquire in the future.
Det Chief Supt Mclean said that daily the force's financial investigators assessed anyone charged with a crime where they have made a material benefit. Once the assessment has been made, the Crown Prosecution Service decide on whether to go for a Confiscation Order and progresses the criminal proceedings and financial investigation through the courts.
He added: "Financial investigators are located at every one of West Yorkshire Police's Divisions to strip criminals of their ill-gotten gains.
"The focus for the Criminal Justice Team in West Yorkshire is very clear – remove the profits from crime and hit criminals where it hurts the most."
In the last three years West Yorkshire Police has confiscated huge sums of criminals' assets and a proportion of that has been returned to it by the Home Office to fund further efforts to make sure crime does not pay.
Bryan Dent, the West Yorkshire Police drugs co-ordinator, said: "We want to demonstrate to the public that we are totally committed to attacking the wealth of those who profit from the trade in illegal drugs to make sure they do not have a financial base to carry on drug dealing in the future.
"We are always keen to hear from the public about any person who appears to have wealth and possessions without any apparent legal means of funding this lifestyle, and who they suspect may be involved in the drugs trade."
Anyone who has information about the illegal drugs trade should contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.