Rat on criminal, cheat and twister (7)
I believe the answer is:
tornado
'twister' is the definition.
('tornado' can be a synonym of 'twister')
'rat on criminal cheat' is the wordplay.
'criminal' is an anagram indicator.
'cheat' becomes 'do'.
'rat'+'on'='raton'
'raton' is an anagram of 'torna'.
'torna'+'do'='TORNADO'
'and' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for tornado that I've seen before include "Whirling windstorm" , "A major blow" , "Type of cyclone" , "Terrible current" , "Violent wind storm" .)