Brexit must not hamper police probes into foreign criminals, Sadiq Khan warns

Warning: London Mayor Sadiq Khan speaking in Berlin
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Ross Lydall @RossLydall13 November 2018

Foreign criminals operating in London will be more likely to evade justice if the Met police is unable to share data with European forces after Brexit, Sadiq Khan warned today.

The Mayor called for EU security cooperation to be removed from the Brexit negotiations to allow a separate deal to be struck on arrest warrants, extradition requests and “watch lists” issued on wanted individuals.

Without ongoing cooperation, police would be left to tackle organised crime, human trafficking, money laundering and the terror threat “with one arm tied behind their backs”, Mr Khan said.

It came as he was today attending a memorial event in Paris to mark the third anniversary of the Bataclan terrorist attack in which 90 people were killed.

The Mayor was meeting the family of Londoner Nick Alexander, the only Briton to die in the attack. Mr Alexander, 35, had been selling merchandise for the US band Eagles of Death Metal when three gunmen burst into the arena and opened fire.

About 30 per cent of people arrested in London are foreign nationals - half from the EU and half from nations elsewhere in the world.

These are dominated by people from EU countries such as Portugal, Lithuania, Poland and Ireland, the Standard has learned.

The failure to maintain cross-border links would prevent the Met from being able to access the criminal histories of people apprehended in the UK.

One source said it would potentially mean that a shoplifter arrested in Oxford Street would have a different chance of being prosecuted depending on whether they were from “Preston or Poland”.

City Hall says there are 32 measures used on a daily basis by police, including access to Europol, the European Arrest Warrant and EU Passenger Name Records.

Losing the European Arrest Warrant would make it harder to bring suspects back to the UK to face justice.

Mr Khan said: “Since 2004, 10,000 people have been extradited from our country to the EU. Before that it was about 60 a year.

“Last year alone, our police used the EU tools to make 162,000 requests for information from our colleagues across Europe.

“I have no idea whether Prime Minister May can do a deal with the EU. If there is no deal, on March 30 we have got no arrangements with the EU.

“In these circumstances, let the grown ups have a separate arrangement on security. If the worst comes to the worst and we have no deal with the EU we can carry on with our security arrangements.”

City Hall said Britain’s access to EU security measures led to the arrest and extradition of Jamie Acourt in May, on connection with the large-scale supply of drugs.

The European Arrest Warrant was used to arrest and extradite the 2005 failed Shepherd’s Bush bomber Hussain Osman, and is being used to pursue the two GRU officers believed to be responsible for the Novichok attack in Salisbury.

National Police Chiefs’ Council Chair, Sara Thornton, has previously warned the “alternatives we are planning to use, where they exist, are without exception slower, more bureaucratic and ultimately less effective.”

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Richard Martin, the NPCC’s lead for Brexit, has said that without access to EU data sharing and co-operation the UK’s ability to map terrorist and criminal networks across Europe and bring those responsible to justice, would be reduced.

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