It begins with a beam of high-intensity radiation. Silent and invisible. It disables the electronics of the alarm and telephone system of the bank manager's house, and then the gang bursts in. Wearing identical clothes and caps to confuse the CCTV and communicating by untraceable mobile phones, the gang of four London criminals incapacitate everyone in the house with stun guns.A lap-top computer and portable palm reader is then produced and the hand of the unconscious bank manager is placed on top. Within seconds, the gang have dialled into the bank's computer and gained top-level access to thousands of accounts. After transferring money the gang leaves, sealing the doors of the home with a foam which turns rock solid in seconds, and makes its getaway in two identical vehicles equipped with anti-reflective number plates to frustrate speed cameras.
This, law enforcement experts believe, is the future of organised crime where villains will use a combination of cutting-edge technology and old-fashioned brute force to defeat increasingly sophisticated security systems. Rather than coshes and sawn-off shotguns, the criminals of tomorrow will be skilled in crimes that produce high profits but with a fraction of the risk of armed robbery or drug smuggling. It is not far away.
'The purpose of organised crime is to generate profits,' said a spokesman for the National Criminal Intelligence Service. 'To identity the key areas of criminality in the future, you simply have to identify the areas that will be generating the most money. Biotechnology and information technology are the two biggest revolutions of this century, and we have to look at each of them and see where the potential for money is from the criminal point of view. Organised crime will become more sophisticated and more networked, and it is the challenge of law enforcement to look where those networks may spin in the future.'
Kidnapping is thought to be a particular growth area. This is because new security technologies such as retina scans and fingerprint recognition require a living subject.
Long thought to be the stuff of science fiction, such devices are becoming increasingly common. Fingerprint access for staff and visitors exists at Australia's Maitland prison, while palm print recognition is used to speed up passport control at Bermuda airport. Retina scans for customers withdrawing money from hole-in-the-wall machines are under development.
Blackmail and extortion are also set to rise. Although banks refuse to discuss the subject, it is believed that there have been at least four instances of blackmail in which criminals have threatened to disrupt the systems of city institutions with high-intensity radiation devices.
Commodities traded by the organised criminals of tomorrow will also change. Increasing profits will lead to a search for effective money-laundering solutions. Small, high-value items such as computer chips, rare metals and even meteorite fragments will be traded between gangs in an effort to avoid leaving electronic trails.
With the price of computer memory chips having risen 400 per cent in the last three weeks, police believe a new spate or robberies and factory break-ins is just around the corner.
Senior National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) analysts are warning of the threat of digital stimulants and hallucinogens, transmitted across the internet, which could create new forms of addiction rivalling heroin and cocaine.
At an FBI-sponsored gathering of international law enforcement agencies in Germany last month, one NCIS officer claimed that criminals had begun to exploit areas such as virtual banking and on-line gambling, and were now developing a new generation of drugs, the effects of which could be experienced without actually possessing them.
Instead, users will hook up to machines which will directly stimulate the pleasure centres of the brain. Some may go further and have silicon chips implanted in their bodies.
Although the technology to deliver cyber-narcotics does not yet exist, experts in the field admit that it is only a matter of time. Last year Kevin Warwick, Professor of Cybernetics at Reading University, had a chip implanted in his left elbow which allowed computers to communicate directly with his body. He could switch machines on and off simply by scratching his head.
A silicon chip implanted into the body will be able to pick up a signal that delivers 'highs' every bit as addictive as the smartest designer drugs.
Experiments on chimps and other animals have already shown that when they are wired externally, via an electrode implanted into the pleasure centres of the brain, they become so addicted to the sensations it produces that they forget to eat and can die for lack of food.
'Cyberspace offers criminals opportunities to create unprecedented and terrible new forms of addiction,' said Professor Warwick. 'The question is not whether virtual-reality narcotics can be created, but how soon they can be put on the market.'
How the underworld aims to get on top
The balaclava and shotgun have had their day. Here's how the sophisticated criminals of tomorrow are likely to outwit the their victims and the police...
Cyber-narcotics
Law enforcement officials across the world are bracing themselves for the introduction of virtual reality drugs which, because they are transmitted across the Internet or using radio waves, can be taken without anyone ever needing to actually possess them.
Kidnapping
The number of incidents is expected to rise dramatically as new forms of security such as retina scans and fingerprint recognition, both of which require living subjects, are introduced.
Blackmail and extortion
Disrupting sensitive computer equipment using high-intensity radiation devices and using rogue programmers to plant 'logic bombs' into systems are another growth area. Hacking into computer systems for profit rather than just mischief is also set to rise.
Non-lethal weapons
Increased penalties for carrying firearms, along with an greatly increased likelihood of being shot dead by armed police, will lead to more criminals using non-lethal weapons to incapacitate victims, such as stun guns and CS gas sprays.
How to zap the driver in front
Once we might have responded to being stuck in a traffic jam by lighting up a cigarette or begging the kids to be patient. But soon we will simply pull out a chainsaw, an axe or a laser and fight our fellow motorists to the death.
In a move which has alarmed motoring organisations, drivers will soon be able to play bloodthirsty computer games against each other, thanks to the latest developments in mobile phone technology.
Picture the scene. You are sitting in your vehicle in the world's largest car park, the M25. The driver in front has a sticker which reveals he or she is a fan of the cult video game Quake.
Your car bears the same sticker and you dial up the other driver. Both cars are fitted with screens on the dashboard. Within seconds the pair of you are involved in a fight to the finish. Once the accelerator is pushed, the game stops.
'We believe games will be a key application to make people buy mobile phones,' said Lars Bergendahl, operations director with Ericsson, the Swedish telecommunications giant which dreamed up the concept. The new way of playing video games is already being trialled at Ericsson's development centre in Guildford (using Quake for the pilot) and the company expects to roll the service out commercially within the next two years.
Car safety groups have expressed shock at the new technology. 'This is entertainment. It has no place when you're driving a car,' said Richard Freeman, policy manager with the AA..
Bergendahl argues that playing video games in cars nay actually relieve road rage. 'People who drive a lot may have high stress levels. If you play a game in your car, you will come out feeling much better.'
Freeman is sceptical. 'Road rage is becoming a marketing tool. People do not need to play a video game to relieve tension.'
