Thousands of UK high street shops raided in police crackdown
A national operation has seen thousands of high street shops raided by police across the UK, with hundreds arrested and millions in illicit commodities seized and destroyed.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) conducted Operation Machinize 2 together with the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) throughout October, leveraging a range of police forces and enforcement bodies across the country to crack down on the criminal exploitation of high street businesses.
The largest operation of its kind, the initiative aimed to root out economic crime and tackle the problematic grey economy that runs across many high street businesses.
According to the NCA, a total of 2,734 premises were visited and raided as part of the operation and 924 people were arrested. Over £10.7 million of suspected criminal proceeds were seized by police, and over £2.7 million worth of illicit commodities were destroyed.
This includes a total of 70kg of cannabis, 111,000 illegal vapes, 4.5 million illegal cigarettes, and 622kg of illegal tobacco. The police also issued 341 Referral Notices for illegal working and renting, and more than 450 companies were referred to Companies House for further investigation.
At least £12 billion of criminal cash is generated in the UK each year, the NCA estimates, and this money is typically smuggled out of the country or recycled through seemingly legitimate businesses.
The NCA said that high street businesses such as mini-marts, vape shops, barber shops, and nail bars are commonly used to make the proceeds of criminal activity appear legitimate.
Operation Machinize was established to target this type of economic crime and to crack down on the sale of illicit products. The NCA recognised that the scope of this problem was beyond any one organisation, and therefore it created a strategy to work in partnership with the NPCC and many enforcement and regulatory agencies throughout the country to tackle high street criminal exploitation.
“This second phase of Operation Machinize has set a new standard for what can be achieved through the coordinated action of UK law enforcement. Thousands of officers have been deployed up and down our country, targeting criminal profits and the means of generating them,” said NCA National Economic Crime Centre Director Rachael Herbert.
“Hundreds of thousands of harmful and illegal products have been taken off our streets, and over £10m in cash, frozen in bank accounts and criminal assets seized. Depriving criminals of their source of income has a real impact, limiting the amount of funds they can reinvest in further offending and deterring them from taking spaces on our high street that could be used by legitimate businesses.”
“These excellent results demonstrate what can be achieved in partnership and show the determination of UK law enforcement to keep our communities safe. We ask for the public’s support as we move forward and to continue to report suspected criminality to the police,” Herbert said.
