A TOP cop has said that Scottish gangsters continued to make money during the pandemic but they are cracking down on organised crime. 

Detective Chief Superintendent Stuart Houston told the Scottish Sun: “Organised crime didn’t stop due to the lockdowns. This trade has carried on non-stop.

“And pandemic or not, we pursued and disrupted organised criminal gangs.”

DCS Houston, who is head of the Organised Crime and Counter Terrorism Unit at Police Scotland, said that organisations were involved in everything from human trafficking to flogging firearms and online fraud to make money.

But he says that the ongoing Operation Venetic, where detectives hacked the messaging service Encrochat in June 2020, enabled them to catch crooks. 

The operation took £25million worth of drugs off Scotland’s streets along with firearms, ammo, pill presses and £7million in dirty cash.

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Cops busted nearly 60 hoods despite coronavirus restrictions, and many crooks will be in court this year. 

John Gurie, 38, from East Kilbride, was jailed for six years last month after being caught with £1.6m worth of coke hidden in his van and home.

Drug couriers David Murdoch, 57, and Graham McCulloch, 40, were also jailed for ten years each in February after transporting 52kg of high-purity cocaine across the Scottish border.

DCS Houston added: “We need to be ahead of criminals and cracking EncroChat gave us that.

 “While drugs are still a major issue, criminals have moved into the digital age with fraud and even crypto-currency.

“That is the future for organised criminals

“I could go on a website and set up my own cryptocurrency and have folk buying it within the hour - it’s that easy.

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“There has been a huge increase in fraud across the UK during the pandemic and we also link in with Interpol and Europol to tackle this.

“Romance frauds, phone scams - it’s all serious and organised crime.

“What concerns me is the under-reporting of this due to embarrassment.”