The Serious and Organised Crime Command (SCD7 – Specialist Crime Directorate 7) was a unit of the Metropolitan Police in

Greater London Greater London is an administrative area in England, coterminous with the London region, containing most of the continuous urban area of London. It contains 33 local government districts: the 32 London boroughs, which form a Ceremonial count ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. It was part of the Specialist Crime Directorate (now Specialist Crime & Operations (SC&O) - created by the merger of Specialist Crime Directorate and Central Operations) and is today part of Met Operations 7 (MO7). It was divided into 10 units: * Kidnap Unit - provides fast responses to life-threatening

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

s in action, for example

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit (e.g., money or goods) through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, although making unfounded ...

blackmail Blackmail is a criminal act of coercion using a threat. As a criminal offense, blackmail is defined in various ways in common law jurisdictions. In the United States, blackmail is generally defined as a crime of information, involving a thr ...

kidnap Kidnapping or abduction is the unlawful abduction and confinement of a person against their will, and is a crime in many jurisdictions. Kidnapping may be accomplished by use of force or fear, or a victim may be enticed into confinement by frau ...

for

ransom Ransom refers to the practice of holding a prisoner or item to extort money or property to secure their release. It also refers to the sum of money paid by the other party to secure a captive's freedom. When ransom means "payment", the word ...

where the

hostage A hostage is a person seized by an abductor in order to compel another party, one which places a high value on the liberty, well-being and safety of the person seized—such as a relative, employer, law enforcement, or government—to act, o ...

has not been recovered. *

Project Team In a project, a project team or team is defined as "an interdependent collection of individuals who work together towards a common goal and who share responsibility for specific outcomes of their organizations". An additional requirement to the or ...

- conducts operations against

organised crime Organized crime is a category of transnational, national, or local group of centralized enterprises run to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a form of illegal business, some ...

, (cross-London, national or international) at National Intelligence Model levels 2–3. This includes proactive contracts to arrest major drugs suppliers, multi-dimensional crime groups, including ethnically composed gangs, and large-scale firearms trafficking. * Branch Intelligence Unit - provides intelligence for the Serious and Organised Crime Group *

Flying Squad The Flying Squad is a branch of the Serious and Organised Crime Command within London's Metropolitan Police Service. It is also known as the Robbery Squad, Specialist Crime Directorate 7, SC&O7 and SO7. It is nicknamed The Sweeney, an abbrevia ...

- investigates robberies (whether armed or not) of cash in transit companies,

building societies A building society is a financial institution owned by its members as a mutual organization, which offers banking institution, banking and related financial services, especially savings and mortgage loan, mortgage lending. They exist in the Unit ...

betting Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three ele ...

offices,

post offices Post, POST, or posting may refer to: Postal services * Mail, the postal system, especially in Commonwealth of Nations countries ** An Post, the Irish national postal service ** Canada Post, Canadian postal service ** Deutsche Post, German posta ...

, jewellers,

casino A casino is a facility for gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shops, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos also host live entertainment, such as stand-up comedy, conce ...

s and

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

s. They also investigate all robberies at commercial premises where a

firearm A firearm is any type of gun that uses an explosive charge and is designed to be readily carried and operated by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see legal definitions). The first firearms originate ...

is produced or intimated. * Hostage and Crisis Negotiation Unit - provides negotiators for all hostage situations, and delivers Hostage and Crisis Negotiation training nationally and internationally. * Central Task Force - investigates class A drug dealers, firearms traffickers and any other criminal group affecting two or more

London Borough The London boroughs are the current 32 districts of England, local authority districts that together with the City of London make up the administrative area of Greater London, England; each is governed by a London borough council. The present ...

s, particularly criminal networks. * Middle Market Drugs Partnership - a joint partnership between the Serious and Organised Crime Group and

National Crime Agency The National Crime Agency (NCA) is a Law enforcement agency#natlea, national law enforcement agency in the United Kingdom. It is the UK's lead agency against organised crime; Human trafficking, human, Arms trafficking, weapon and Illegal drug t ...

. Investigates class A drug supply in London within minimum levels of 1/2 kg of

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a morphinan opioid substance synthesized from the Opium, dried latex of the Papaver somniferum, opium poppy; it is mainly used as a recreational drug for its eupho ...

or 1 kg of

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

, or where an operation will exceed 8 weeks. * Cultural and Communities Research Unit - provides 24-hour support with immediate access to staff of the Met Police that have a broad range of life skills, such as knowledge of a community, language, culture, religion, trade or hobby. * Operation Grafton
- investigates criminal networks linked to crime with a value over £10,000 in and around

Heathrow Airport Heathrow Airport , also colloquially known as London Heathrow Airport and named ''London Airport'' until 1966, is the primary and largest international airport serving London, the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdo ...

, including networks operating across force boundaries. * Specialist Intelligence Service - provides intelligence for the Project Teams.

References

{{Metropolitan Police Metropolitan Police units Organised crime in London