More than 920 people have been arrested in a nationwide crackdown on organised crime linked to High Street businesses, in what the National Crime Agency (NCA) has called the largest operation of its kind.
The month-long campaign, coordinated by the NCA under Operation Machinize, targeted mini-marts, vape shops, barbers and takeaways across the UK.
More than 2,700 premises were raided, resulting in the seizure of more than £10.7 million in criminal proceeds, including illegal tobacco and vapes worth millions, £500,000 in cash and 70kg of cannabis.
Authorities also issued more than 340 notices for illegal working and renting, with businesses and landlords facing potential fines of tens of thousands of pounds.
More than 450 registered companies have been referred to Companies House for further investigation.
The crackdown followed a BBC investigation that exposed Kurdish crime fixers offering to erase £60,000 fines for illegal working and revealed a network of “ghost directors” being used to conceal criminal control of mini-mart businesses.
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“Thousands of officers have been deployed up and down our country, targeting criminal profits and the means of generating them,” Rachael Herbert, director of the National Economic Crime Centre at the NCA, told the BBC.
“Hundreds of thousands of harmful and illegal products have been taken off our streets, and over £10m in cash and assets seized.”
The NCA estimates that £12 billion in criminal cash is generated in the UK each year, much of which is smuggled abroad or laundered through financial systems.
Home Office security minister Dan Jarvis said criminals were using “dodgy shops” as fronts for organised crime, money laundering and illegal working.
“We have intensified our joint efforts with law enforcement to dismantle criminal networks and relentlessly pursue those who use dirty money for personal gain,” he added.
The operation, which involved every police force in the UK alongside Trading Standards, HMRC and Immigration Enforcement, follows growing political pressure for tougher action.
A group of 25 Labour MPs, led by Melanie Onn, MP for Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes, has launched a campaign to “shut down dodgy shops”, calling for new legislative powers and harsher penalties.
The Chartered Trading Standards Institute has said that serious and organised crime on the High Street was now the number one threat facing its officers and urged for stronger powers and resources to close offending businesses.
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