Directorate of Special Operations“SCORPIONS”

ADV LF McCARTHY

PRESENTATION TO PARLIAMENT

(18 JUNE 2004)

A Room with a View  

• The opportunity for a sustained focus on

undisclosed high level organized crime;

• The opportunity to employ and retain the services

of highly skilled and suitably qualified investigators

by remunerating them appropriately;

• The need to radically change the State’s traditional

response of reacting to crime;

• The urgency to return legitimacy and credibility to

law enforcement, especially in the area of insidious

organized criminal activity.

The View from the Bottom Up

The Vision of the DSO:“Justice in our society so that people can live in freedom and security:

Loved by the people

Feared by the criminals

Respected by peers”

 

The Mission of the DSO:“We are a multidisciplinary agency that investigates and

prosecutes organized crime. We focus on crimes of national impact that requires the integration of intelligence, investigation and prosecution, supported by modern technology.”

The Structure of the DSO

NDPPNDPP

HEAD OF HEAD OF DSO

HEAD OF OPERATIONS

HEAD OF HEAD OF STRATEGIC & STRATEGIC & INVESTIGATIVE INVESTIGATIVE

SUPPORTSUPPORT

FCFC OCOC PCPC POCAPOCA

REGIONAL PROJECT TEAMSREGIONAL PROJECT TEAMSGPGP

REGIONAL PROJECT TEAMSREGIONAL PROJECT TEAMSECEC

REGIONAL PROJECT TEAMSREGIONAL PROJECT TEAMSWCWC

REGIONAL PROJECT TEAMSREGIONAL PROJECT TEAMSKZNKZN

CRIME ANALYSISCRIME ANALYSIS

CICU

FORENSIC SERVICESFORENSIC SERVICES

TRAINING & DEVELOPMENTTRAINING & DEVELOPMENT

OPERATIONAL SUPPORTOPERATIONAL SUPPORT

ADMINISTRATIONADMINISTRATION

Personnel

Gauteng 111

Cape Town 97

East London 58

KZN 97

CAD 32

Operational Support 38

Training 9

Head of Operations 22

CICU 18

Head Office 22

TOTAL 504

Males Females African White Coloured Indian

62 49 69 30 8 4

73 24 20 44 29 4

34 24 41 9 7 1

64 33 46 23 2 26

13 19 23 4 4 1

27 11 26 11 0 1

5 4 5 2 2 0

17 5 12 9 1 0

11 7 11 6 0 1

16 6 9 7 4 2

322 182 262 145 57 40

DSO Strategic Focus Areas

Serious and complex financial crimes;

Action under the

Prevention of OrganisedCrime Act, 1998

(Act No 121 of 1998), such as racketeering,

money laundering and asset forfeiture;

Traditional organised crime types, i.e. drug trafficking;

organised violence, (ie. taxi violence, urban terror and street gangs),

precious metal smuggling; human trafficking;

vehicle theft/ hijacking syndicates;

Organised corruption

(criminal justice system & public sector procurement)

• Identify and address those serious, complex and organised crime phenomena, that call for pro-active counter-attack;

• Become the primary source of crime information as mandated, with a stable, pre-emptive capacity to analyse serious organised crime trends and determine targets;

• Apply a multi-disciplinary approach to investigations to ensure quality impact in our focus areas;

• Disrupt organised crime and corruption networks through arrests, searches and convictions, and forfeiture;

• Attack the value chain of organised crime, through modern technology, method sophistication and communication surveillance;

• Be the foremost proponent of applying racketeering and money-laundering legislation; and

• Proliferate the perception of victory over crime, essential to enhance public confidence.

Strategy of the DSO

DSO Case Intake Criteria

 • Complexity, prevalence, seriousness and premeditation;

• Financial worth, syndicate character / profile and public interest;

and

• Racketeering, money laundering and asset forfeiture.

The DSO Dashboard

1.THREAT ANALYSIS/

TARGET MATCH

8.ASSET VALUE

UNDER RESTRAINT

4.PROSECUTIONS

PENDING /FINALISED

7.MONEY-

LAUNDERING / RACKETEERING

5.CONVICTION

RATES

6.REDUCTION IN TURN-AROUND

TIME

2.PRO-ACTIVITY & INTELLIGENCE

PRODUCTS

3.INVESTIGATIONS

PENDING / FINALISED

9.OPERATIVE

ACTION

10.CONTRABAND

YIELD

A Dashboard Drilldown (1)

 

OUTPUT / INDICATOR

ACHIEVED2002

TARGET 2003 ACHIEVED2003

Match between Threat Analysis and

Targets in focus areas.

Not measured 15%21.4%

(24 targets)

Pro-activity scope and intelligence

products.

Not measured 10% of investigations / 20

products

19.5% (new matters)

(37)

Number of investigations

finalised in focus areas.

 

190 22093%(205)

Number of prosecutions

finalised.180 210

(90%)189

A Dashboard Drilldown (2)

Turn-around time for select investigations.

24 Months on averageReduced by 10%

21,6 months21,3months

(89%)

Conviction rate. 86% 75% 94%

Asset value under restraint.

Measured as potential in 2002

150m88%

(R132.49m)

Money-laundering and racketeering

cases.

4convictions

Benchmarking aimed at reaching

10.

40%(4)

Operative Action. 545600

109% (656)

Contraband Yield. R500mR550m

230% (R1.151bn)

OUTPUT / INDICATOR

ACHIEVED2002

TARGET 2003ACHIEVED

2003

DSO Productivity & Service Delivery Trends (1)

REGION GP EC WC KZN PMOSNPU

CI CU

Total

Number of investigations in

focus areas

65 17 29 21 10 55  9 206

Number of investigations

finalized

52 17 59 32 15 28  2 205

Number of prosecutions

finalized

50 27 56 29 17 10  0 189

Number of high-impact cases

investigated and prosecuted

(in strategic focus areas)

20 7 20   10 9 2  0 68

DSO Productivity & Service Delivery Trends (2)

A significant reduction in the

turn-around time of investigations and

prosecutions

10% 12%  11%  10% 15% 10% 10% 

 11.2%

Achieving a conviction rate that

enhances the perception of

victory over crime

95.50% 100% 83%  100% 83% 100%  0  94%

Assets under legal restraint /

confiscationR25m R529

000R49. 748m

R16.112m

R41mR20 000

 0R 132.49m

REGIONGP EC WC KZN PMO SNP

UCICU

Total

DSO Productivity & Service Delivery Trends (3)

Number of racketeering

convictions under the POCA

4 0 0 0

 

0 

0 0  4 

Number of pro-active

investigations

9 2 11  4 

 

5 

2  4  37

Amount (value) of contraband yield

 10m 0  6m R29m R1.1bn

0 R6m 

1.151bn

Number of representations

disposed of

1247 534  240 175 70 30  0  2306

Number of motions attended to

10 0  0  0 0 0 0   10

Operative action projects

58 40  46 34 13 25  4  220

REGION GP EC WC KZN PMOSNPU

CICU

Total

DSO Productivity & Service Delivery Trends (4)

Number of persons arrested

71 26 16 55 107 10  5 

290 

Number of premises searched

65 14 31 16 0 20  7 153

Number of interception &

monitoring applications

5 0 5 4 5 0  1 20

Number of 252 A entrapment applications

103 4 10 10 58 6  2 193

REGION GP EC WC KZN PMOSNP

UCICU

Total

 FINANCIAL CRIME

•Saambou [Major Corporate collapse: financial services].

•Leisurenet [Fraud on Shareholders & Insider Trading].

•Soekor [State v Park-Ross and 3 Others; Boardroom Corruption and nominal share-holding].

•Mohammed [Trust Fraud: Attorneys].

•Moosa [First Market Manipulation conviction in South Africa].

•GEMS [Extensive commissions fraud under Micro-lending scheme].

Operational Highlights

Operational Highlights

 FINANCIAL CRIME CONT…

•Halgryn [100m estate discount fraud].

•Regal Bank [Financial Statement Fraud: boosting share price].

•Golden Arrow [Multi-million rand Transport Subsidy Fraud].

•Adodamo &Uguchuckiwu [Corporate Identity hi-jacking and Website-Spoofing].

 ORGANISED CRIME

•Guanxi [Chinese syndicates: major smuggling networks].

•Contraband Yield [1bn value; 2bn social costs].

•WAS 419 [West African syndicates: Racketeering & money- laundering].

•Macadamian International [Creative & suspicious money transfers].

•S v Jabaar [Hawala: Cross-border Foreign currency].

•S v Zhou [Criminal supermarket: abalone & drugs].

•Ngubo [Political Violence: Life imprisonment: Natal Midlands].

•Nkonqo [Murder, Racketeering in the Eastern Cape between rivals taxi-associations].

•3 Gang leaders/ 3 Urban terrorists: [Multiple jail terms].

Operational Highlights cont…

 CORRUPTION

•Augusta [1st conviction of multi-national on corruption charges].

•Mills [Multi-million corrupt Services Scheme].

•Houtbay Fishing [Money-Laundering and Fraud: R57m recovered].

•RAF [Corruption and Fraud: Attorneys and Agents].

•Landbank [Multiple convictions of corruption and fraud:

R100m involved].

•S v Shaik [International Corruption & Money- Laundering].

•S v Yengeni [Fraud on Parliament].

Operational Highlights cont…

• More than 150 convictions in urban terror, hi-jacking, taxi-

and political violence.

• Close to 2000 arrests, searches, seizures and other

operational breakthroughs.

• Up to 3 Billion rands worth of contraband and drugs taken off the

streets.

• Disrupted 100 syndicates/ groups involved in smuggling,

corruption, violence and money-rackets.

• Major advances in financial crimes, i.e. Houtbay Fishing,

Tanstar, Golden Arrow, Leisurenet, Regal, Halgryn,

Soekor.

• 45 million CARA, 25% plea bargaining.

Successes (3 Years)

Without Prejudice…

ISS Opinion Survey

65

43

39

37

36

36

31

24

6

20

29

27

19

28

35

31

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Scorpions

Judicial officers

Policy makers

Detectives

Prosecutors

Prison wardens

Uniformed police

CJS performance

Positive Neutral Negative Don't know

Performance ratings of CJS agents

ISS Findings

• The overall conception of the DSO was approved of internally and externally and some agencies were paying the ultimate compliment of imitation (of the general operational method of team-based prosecution- focused investigation).

• The need for better operational intelligence to support matters taken on and strategic intelligence to further define the strategic focus of the DSO was raised by interviewees inside and outside the DSO.

• This view also maintains it would be exactly the role of the DSO to carry out dedicated undercover operations that would begin to unearth further intelligence, which could also be used as evidence in a court of law.

• Interviewees were almost unanimous on the point that the DSO's external media campaign had succeeded spectacularly in installing public confidence and trust in the DSO, and reviving the hopes of citizens that South Africa can begin to succeed in the fight against crime.

ISS Findings cont…

• DSO members appeared keen to prove themselves and ‘make a difference’ and were not resistant to performance measurement, or to identifying faults with themselves or the organisation, with a view to improving performance.

• External stakeholders not involved in work similar to the DSO felt the DSO had performed extremely well since its inception; however many noted they had no first-hand knowledge and based this view on news reports.”

Making a difference?

Key Challenges for 2004/2005

• To strengthen our capacity to access appropriate crime information

timeously;

• To grow in pro-activity and unravel the top crime echelons;

• To ensure constant, visible operation with quicker action and

results;

• To make technology work to impact positively on law enforcement;

• To show a much greater presence in courts through the quality/type

of convictions and the disruption of organised crime.

Recipe for Action

• A secure identification of the Fortune 100 criminal syndicates and • priority targets;

• A focus on and disruption of 50 amongst the main crime syndicates • that answer the definitions of the Palermo Convention;

• A visible and greater presence in the courts, manifest in 250 • prosecutions; 125 high-level, 125 tactical benefit;

• 75 High-impact prosecutions that reduce organised crime by a • measurable 25% in specified focus areas;

• Of the convictions, 25 should be racketeering-based and 25 • resulting from money-laundering investigations; and

• 250m under asset forfeiture hold and compensation orders, with • 50m directed to the Criminal Asset Recovery Fund.

Thank You