Britain's "FBI" has identified the top 130 crime barons it wants to put out of business.
The Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), headed by former MI5 chief Sir Stephen Lander, has narrowed down an original list of more than 1,000 names to pinpoint its priority targets.
In the first progress report since its launch earlier this year, the agency stressed the figure was not a definitive list of Britain's most serious gangsters.
The overall pool of names could still widen and investigators have promised to add to the master list as intelligence on their activities improves.
The agency began life in a blaze of publicity in April with a promise by Prime Minister Tony Blair to "make life hell" for criminal gangs, prioritising drugs and human trafficking.
It has spent the last six months compiling a list of more than 1,000 "serious players" in the criminal underworld.
"We have got to this better picture now of certainly in excess of 1,000 people who are players at a serious level," said director general Bill Hughes.
"We have refined down those who are the real players within that. That is well over 100. We are adding to that list as we go and as our intelligence gets better."
He stressed that some of the main targets were outside the jurisdiction of the UK's police and Soca agents.
Remarkably, others were still running their criminal networks from inside British jails, he said.
