VIOLENT criminals are turning to the lucrative business of wildlife crime, an investigation by The Northern Echo can reveal.

Police and wildlife campaigners say organised gangs are increasingly adapting smuggling networks used for the trade in drugs and firearms to deal in live creatures and wildlife products as well.

Officials are also gathering growing evidence that violent criminals from the region are involved in the so-called sports of badger-baiting, dog fighting and cockfighting, sometimes to raise money for drugs deals.

Wildlife campaign groups say some criminals believe wildlife trafficking attracts less attention from the police - as well as lighter court sentences.

Campaign group WWF and Traffic, the monitoring network it runs with the World Conservation Union, investigated criminals prosecuted for wildlife trafficking in the UK and discovered that 50 per cent had previous convictions for drugs, violence, theft and firearms offences.

The organisations estimate that global traffic in animals is now worth £3bn a year and includes everything from song birds and tortoises, to the remains of tigers, which are used in oriental medicine, and ivory from rhino and elephants. All are protected under international law.

Superintendent Graham Rankin, who oversees Durham Police's wildlife liaison officers, said: "If you look at international crime, the big money earners are drugs, firearms - and wildlife.

"Drugs are way out in front, but I would not have thought there was much difference between firearms and wildlife.

"Criminals involved in drugs and firearms, who find them too hot to handle as the police and Customs service get at them, are seeking to diversify. It is like big business and one of the outlets is wildlife.

"Beneath the international trade there is a structure and there are people locally who are illegally dealing in animals and plants."

Stuart Chapman, WWF-UK head of species programme, said: "The profits, sometimes worth up to 800 per cent, combined with the low risks of detection and lack of serious punishment, make illegal wildlife trade very attractive to criminals."

Elaine King, chief executive of the National Federation of Badger Groups, said: "There is a lot of evidence that people involved in crimes against badgers and other wildlife are involved in other types of offence, such as drugs, firearms, violence, burglary and theft. These are hardened criminals with previous convictions."

Only last week, police launched an investigation after a badger sett was attacked near Bishop Auckland, County Durham. The bodies of at least one, possibly two badgers were found in woodland close to the sett.

A Durham Badger Group spokesman said the animals were taken from setts and sold on the black market to finance the drugs trade.

A spokesman for the RSPCA in the region, who said its undercover investigators were sometimes physically threatened, added: "It is definitely the case that the type of people involved in these kind of activities are hardened people. They are a very tough bunch."

The National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) launched the UK's first wildlife unit in April, headed by Cleveland officer PC Chris Kerr, to provide police forces with information on wildlife criminals in their area.

NCIS director general John Abbott said: "Expert these criminals may be, but they use violence, corruption and extortion to obtain and traffic the wildlife."

* The Northern Echo's award-winning Animal Watch campaign was launched two years ago with the backing of the RSPCA to highlight the appalling record of animal cruelty in the region.

Read more about the Animal Watch campaign here.