Turkish barbershops, vape shops and more raided by police in money laundering crackdown as almost 1,000 people arrested
More than 2,700 high street businesses including barbers, minimarts and vape shops have been raided by police.
Cash-rich businesses, which have proliferated on UK high streets in recent years, have been used for a range of crimes including money laundering, hiding drugs, people trafficking and smuggling tobacco and vapes, officials say.
Some areas such as Essex and Doncaster have seen the number of barber shops rise by 200% in five years.
The raids were carried out as part of the second stage of Operation Machinize, a UK-wide operation launched in March after officials at the National Crime Agency (NCA) decided a tipping point had been reached around 18 months ago.
Billions of pounds are laundered through the UK each year, around £12bn of which is processed in cash. Most of this is thought to come from drugs.
A month-long operation in October saw 2,734 premises visited and raided, 924 arrests, more than £10.7m seized and £2.7m of illegal goods destroyed.
More than 450 companies have been referred to Companies House for further investigation. Nail bars, car washes, takeaways, phone shops and sweet shops were also among the businesses targeted.
NCA deputy director for illicit finance Sal Melki said: “Shops exploited by criminals can act as hubs for a range of poly-criminality. So it could be a convenient place to launder money or evade tax.
“It could also be a convenient place to move illicit commodities, hide the proceeds of drugs sales, or act as a meeting point for criminal associates.”
The national operation saw officers in West Yorkshire target an alleged crime gang accused of using a jewellers to run an investment fraud and launder the proceeds.
The force seized assets worth more than £2m, including gold bars, a ring worth £500,000, and 30 watches including some made by Patek Philippe. It is alleged that a solicitor, who had a home worth more than £1m with no mortgage, authorised payments of £800,000 as part of the money-laundering operation.
Rachael Herbert, director of the National Economic Crime Centre at the NCA, said: “Thousands of officers have been deployed up and down our country, targeting criminal profits and the means of generating them.
“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.”