Specialist, Organised & Economic Crime Command

The Specialist, Organised & Economic Crime Command was a unit within the Gangs and Organised Crime group of the Frontline Policing command within London's Metropolitan Police Service. As of 2018, the unit's operations now form part of Met Operations and frontline policing units.

The unit's main responsibility was to both investigate and take steps to prevent fraud, along with a wide range of other fraudulent crimes requiring specialist knowledge and training to investigate. The unit had previously been known as the fraud squad, or by its previous Specialist Operations designation, SO6.

History

Formed in 1946 ^[1] as the Metropolitan and City Police Fraud Department or "C6 Branch", it was the first integrated cross-border, co-operative unit set up jointly between London's two police services; the City of London Police, due to their expertise in business and stock market fraud, and the Metropolitan Police with their investigative experience.

The increasing complexity of business fraud, and with it the lessening chances of securing successful prosecutions, saw the implementation of the Serious Fraud Office in 1987. This made C6 obsolete, and the City of London Police and the Metropolitan Police reverted to having their own Fraud Squads.

The MPS was then called SO6. Staffed by about 140 detectives, specialised teams within the Squad included the Commercial Crimes Intelligence Bureau, a Financial Investigations Unit, the Fraud Prevention Office, a Surveillance Unit, a Crime Management Unit and a fledgling Computer Crime Unit. ^[1]

In October 2000, the Fraud Squad was renamed Economic and Specialist Crime under the Assistant Commissioner for Crime and Intelligence, moving to the Specialist Crime Directorate on the latter's formation in 2002. ^[2] Its remit was also expanded substantially to cover a wider range of financial and economic crime and fraud. Several other autonomous units, such as the Arts and Antiquities Squad, were merged into the new unit.

The Proactive Money Laundering Investigation Team, formed in 2003, had a remit to deal with high-level money laundering, and were are active in removing substantial amounts of criminal cash from the organised criminal networks working in and around London. ^[1]

The Specialist Crime Directorate was merged with Central Operations to create Specialist Crime & Operations,^{[ when? ]} which split again in 2018. ^[3] Operations is now part of Met Operations, and Specialist Crime part of Frontline Policing Headquarters within Frontline Policing.

Structure

The Specialist, Organised & Economic Crime Command was made up of several teams and sub-units: ^[4]

• Art and Antiques Unit
• The Branch Intelligence Unit
• The Criminal Finance Team (CFT)
• The Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit
• The Extradition and International Assistance Units
• The Financial Investigation Development Unit
• The Flying Squad
• The Fraud Squads
• Project Genesius
• The Kidnap Unit
• The London Regional Asset Recovery Team (London RART)
• Operation Maxim
• Middle Market Drugs Partnership
• Operation Nexus
• The Police Central e-crime Unit (PCeU)
• The Proactive Money Laundering Taskforce (PMLT)
• The Projects Team
• Operation Sterling
• The Stolen Vehicle Unit (SVU)
• The Trafficking and Prostitution Unit
• The Special Intelligence Section (SIS) ^{[5] [6]}

See also

• Serious Organised Crime Agency
• Specialist Crime Directorate

References

1. Police, Metropolitan. "Metropolitan Police Service - SC&O - Specialist Crime". www.met.police.uk. Archived from the original on 12 June 2012. Retrieved 30 December 2025.
2. "History by the Yard - Scotland Yard's Headquarters from 2000".
3. "Specialist Crime Target Operating Model and Specialist Crime Tasking". www.london.gov.uk. 31 October 2018. Retrieved 30 December 2025.
4. Metropolitan Police: Specialist, Organised & Economic Crime Linked 27 February 2015
5. UNODC (2010). "Organized crime involvement in trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants" (PDF). UNODC Issue Paper.
6. "£100m cocaine gang sentenced to 200 years in prison". the Guardian. 5 January 2011. Retrieved 15 March 2022.