Law enforcement
Illegal Shops Target of New £30 Million Crime Unit
A new £30m high street organised crime unit has been announced by the Government after the BBC's year-long investigative reporting into illegal mini-marts, vape shops, and barbers.
Over 12 months BBC News exposed drug gangs, child sexual exploitation reports, money laundering, immigration crime, and ghost directors linked to shop fronts selling illegal cigarettes and vapes.
The law enforcement response will be run across the UK by the National Crime Agency (NCA) over the next three years - with a cash boost for Trading Standards.
The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) suggested that cuts to its members' resources under previous Governments had helped allow serious and organised crime to gain a foothold on high streets.
The Government has also pledged to carry out a review on how to strengthen law enforcement powers - as well as consulting on extending the length of closure orders to shut criminal businesses down for longer, an area the CTSI said needed to be changed.
Under the Government plans:
- Shops will face raids, closures, and cash seizures in a crackdown by police and trading standards over the next three years
- Some £20m of funding will go towards the NCA, and there will be 75 new police officers in three hotspot regions - Greater Manchester, West Midlands, and Essex and Kent forces
- £6m of funding will go to Trading Standards
- The remainder of the funding - £3.75m - will be split between immigration enforcement, HMRC, and the running of the unit.
The NCA estimates that at least £1bn of criminal cash is laundered through high street stores in the UK each year through businesses connected to the sale of fake goods, tax evasion, illegal working, and illegal drug supply.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: "We are hitting back with a nationwide crackdown to shut these fronts down, seize dirty cash, and drive organised crime off our high streets and put bosses behind bars."
Proposals for the high street organised crime unit - which will be overseen by Security Minister Dan Jarvis - were originally outlined in the 2025 Autumn Budget but the Government has now released more details.
Jarvis told BBC News there would be thousands of raids on high streets across the country in the coming months and he was "confident we will see serious organised criminals imprisoned" and "millions of pounds of laundered money seized".
He added that the new collaboration between the NCA, Trading Standards, local police forces, and HMRC would result in much better targeting of enforcement around the country.
