FT941-3237 _AN-ECQDGABKFT 940317 FT 17 MAR 94 / Foreign gangs 'rule organised crime' By STEWART DALBY There is no single UK gang dominant in organised crime, the Commons home affairs committee was told yesterday. Home Office and Customs and Excise officials told the committee that, leaving Northern Ireland aside, hundreds of crime syndicates were involved in everything from extortion and lorry hijacking to drugs. But there was no dominant group like the Mafia in Italy. The main operators in the UK were often tentacles of international syndicates like the Mafia, the Triads and the Colombian cartels. These groups, increasingly joined by gangs from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, are often involved in drug trafficking and money laundering. Estimating the extent of organised crime is hampered by the lack of a broad definition in UK law of organised crime - such as that in the US law against racketeering. Officials defined organised crime as a group activity whose prime purpose is the achievement of large-scale profits through criminal acts, which is long-term and continuing and includes some form of self-perpetuating criminal structure. Home Office officials estimated that between Pounds 2.5bn and Pounds 4bn was laundered in the UK in 1992. Customs and Excise officials estimated that in the year to April 1993, the value of drugs prevented from entering the UK was Pounds 896m. There were about 9,000 drug seizures and 47 drug rings were broken up. Countries:- GBZ United Kingdom, EC. Industries:- P92 Justice, Public Order, and Safety. Types:- NEWS General News. The Financial Times London Page 8