Empire of Crime

This is the first book to reveal the full extent and variety of organised crime within the British Empire in the 20th century and how gangsters exploited its global trade routes to establish a new age of criminal networks that spanned the world.

They even took the liberty of using the very weapons of imperial power—Her Majesty’s Royal Navy—to smuggle drugs from continent to continent. HMS Belfast, now a major tourist site in the River Thames in the heart of London, was once packed with Triad narcotics from Hong Kong intended for distribution in America.

Digging deep into British colonial archives, Newark has discovered startling truths about organised crime inside the British Empire.

When Great Britain took the moral high ground and banned its lucrative export of opium from Imperial India to China, it unleashed a century of criminality. Just as America's misguided Prohibition of alcohol made illicit fortunes for the Mafia, so organised criminals within the British Empire grew rich on their trade in illegal narcotics in the 20th century.

Tim Newark visits police headquarters in Singapore.

 

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The Independent

"Snappy as Spillane, this book is packed with girls, guns and guts. The violent milieu explored by Newark is not South Side Chicago but the British Empire"

Ian Knight, author of Zulu Rising

"Tim Newark's book is as fascinating and exciting as any crime novel, a truly gripping expose of a colonial underbelly that was as dark as any in history."

Andrew Roberts, author of The Storm of War

"Tim Newark's vivid account of the exploits of law enforcement agents during the British Empire is captivating. Agatha Christie meets The Godfather!"