{"id":259589,"date":"2025-11-13T01:41:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T01:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/259589\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T01:41:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T01:41:15","slug":"arrest-made-and-drugs-seized-in-stapleton-road-operation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/259589\/","title":{"rendered":"Arrest made and drugs seized in Stapleton Road operation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Officers say the action “should act as a warning” to othersA file image of police in Stapleton Road<\/p>\n

Drugs have been seized and an arrest has been made during a crackdown on organised crime in Bristol. The multi-agency operation was carried out on Stapleton Road<\/a>, one of the city’s busiest neighbourhood high streets.<\/p>\n

Police officers, working with Bristol City Council’s Trading Standards team, His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, the Department of Work and Pensions, and immigration officers visited a number of cash-run businesses on Thursday, October 30.<\/p>\n

Police officers seized an amount of drugs and a suspected drug dealer was arrested during the day of action on the street in Easton<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The activity formed part of Operation Machinize, established by the National Crime Agency and aimed at high street businesses which handle large amounts of cash which can be exploited by organised criminals.<\/p>\n

Detective Inspector Scott Chadwick said: \u201cThe public rightly expect serious organised crime to be taken seriously and it was beneficial for all agencies to work collaboratively to rid these groups from our town and city centres.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt follows an increasing number of concerns from people in the area that there were a number of businesses, particularly barber shops, that could be linked to criminality.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe positive and proactive action taken in Bristol should act as a warning to all those conducting illegal activity because we will continue to pursue those involved and look to bring them to justice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are grateful to all those who have come forward with information because that is vital in providing us with the necessary information to carry out pre-planned operations like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

One person was arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply a class B drug, which was seized. Officers also seized an amount of cannabis.<\/p>\n

The man has been released under while enquiries continue.<\/p>\n

The licensing authority was also informed of a premises selling alcohol without the appropriate licence, while two people were also dealt with for immigration matters, police said.<\/p>\n

Rachael Herbert, Director of the National Economic Crime Centre at the NCA, said: \u201cOperation Machinize targets businesses on our high street that are being used as cover for a wide range of criminality, making our communities less safe and less prosperous.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis second phase of Operation Machinize has set a new standard for what can be achieved through the coordinated action of UK law enforcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThousands of officers have been deployed up and down our country, targeting criminal profits and the means of generating them.<\/p>\n

\u201cHundreds of thousands of harmful and illegal products have been taken off our streets, and over \u00a310m 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese 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\u2019s support as we move forward and to continue to report suspected criminality to the police.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Officers say the action “should act as a warning” to othersA file image of police in Stapleton Road…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[32952,14747,924,2215,27180,59,57,58,2218,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-259589","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-avon-and-somerset-constabulary","9":"tag-bristol-city-council","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-dwp","12":"tag-easton","13":"tag-gb","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-greatbritain","16":"tag-hmrc","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}