Can we produce our own FBI?

The contrast between this muddy field in Lanarkshire and the FBI's J Edgar Hoover building is stark but their goals are similar, to co-locate the country's top crime specialists in order to counter the growing threat of serious and organised crime at home and abroad.

Senior police officers have warned that Scottish criminals are stepping up their connections with organised gangs across Europe, including the mafia, to benefit from lucrative drugs and money-laundering schemes.

There is already evidence of eastern European gangmasters in Scotland. In 2004 38 people were arrested in the North-east in a UK-wide crackdown.

Cities such as London have reported major problems with organised crime from Albania, Russia and the Ukraine and a recent report from Europol, the EU police agency, said 40,000 people were involved in organised crime across Europe.

Eastern European criminals in particular have earned themselves a violent reputation. In Italy, Albanian gangs have even muscled the mafia out of many of its traditional haunts.

Specialists have warned that Scottish criminals are working with gangs in countries such as Estonia and Latvia to launder money, because their banking stipulations and legislation are less strict than in the UK.

The plan, therefore, to create a super-campus to house the Scottish Crime and Drugs Enforcement Agency (SCDEA), Scotland's elite crime fighting agency, is more than timely.

The aim is to bring together the specialists working at the SCDEA on money laundering, hi-tech crime and drugs trafficking, with the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), which covers UK-wide issues, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and forensic services.

Graeme Pearson, head of the SCDEA, has already visited the headquarters of the American FBI in Washington DC - the J Edgar Hoover Building - in order to see how the new crime-fighting body might be organised.

The aim of the trip was not to see how the architecture of the rather ugly concrete building could be copied, rather to see how different agencies work together under one roof.

Yesterday, Cathy Jamieson, the Justice Minister, said the centre would be a "world-class response" to the threat of serious and organised crime.

Joint working should enable arrest warrants to be issued more quickly and help prevent criminals from fleeing the country. It will also target foreign gangs and international networks whose operations extend to Scotland.

However, Ken Scott, head of the centre for police studies at Bell College, is concerned that the ability of the campus to crack down on major criminal networks could be hampered by having to work with eight different police forces.

"If we had one national force this would make working relations far easier and would help to define the role of the SCDEA," he said. "Otherwise there are concerns that the agency and forces could be competing for the same territory."

Last year The Herald revealed that Mr Pearson wants to see Scotland's eight police forces to be merged into one national police service - a move vehemently opposed by many of the chief constables. It remains to be seen as to whether ministers will back such a move. It is estimated that there are up to 20 crime bosses in Scotland, each wielding similar powers and with strong connections with crime families abroad. Many of them use the continent as a base to escape to when they become aware they are under scrutiny.

The agency currently tackles the most serious crimes including counterfeiting operations and people trafficking. It focuses on disrupting top level criminal networks and undermining operations by seizing the profits of crime chiefs.

From April onwards, the SCDEA will be able to directly recruit its own staff. Currently it relies on the eight police forces for seconded officers. The ability to directly recruit experts and white-collar enthusiasts is expected to boost its success.

In addition to fighting organised crime, it has recently been suggested that the SCDEA could take over major criminal fraud investigations and counter-terrorism from local police forces.

The campus may also attract other crime-fighting organisations such as the Scottish Police Intelligence Strategy, the Scottish Forensic Science Service and the Scottish Criminal Records Office. For the time the focus will be on greater joint working as a result of the campus.

"It creates a visible embodiment of Scotland's commitment to genuinely deal with organised crime and not just play lip service to it," said Mr Pearson.

"The appetite of serious organised criminals to make profit whatever the cost to society shows no signs of diminishing and we must enhance our ability to deal with this threat.

"The Scottish crime campus, by bringing together a number of key law enforcement bodies at a single site, will undoubtedly assist our efforts by enabling a more direct and co-ordinated response."

The Justice Minister said that while crime was falling, Scotland faced "an ever more sophisticated threat from serious organised crime" which required agencies to work together.

She added: "The new campus is the first of its kind and will have three powerful anti-crime agencies working together, purpose-built modern facilities for over 700 officers and staff, and state-of-the-art forensic science services on site. That's where our proposals for the new crime campus come together - with clear benefits in terms of joint working and the sharing of expertise, facilities and resources.

"The creation of the campus will also send out a strong message to international criminal networks that Scotland is not a soft target."

Bill Hughes, director general of SOCA also welcomed the move.

He said: "SOCA has been created to reduce the harm caused by serious organised crime in the UK. This new facility in Scotland will enable us to work more closely with our colleagues.

"We will ensure that we maximise our co-operation in order to impact on serious organised crime in Scotland and across the rest of the UK."

The campus at Gartcosh, which is estimated to cost £40m, is expected to open in 2010.