{"id":669035,"date":"2026-07-02T02:45:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T02:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/669035\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T02:45:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T02:45:11","slug":"more-than-300-arrests-in-organised-immigration-crime-crackdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/669035\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 300 arrests in organised immigration crime crackdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 300 people have been arrested across the UK, including 57 migrants who had crossed the Channel by boat, as part of a police crackdown on illegal trade and organised immigration crime.<\/p>\n

The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) said more than \u00a31m cash was seized during the five-day operation between June 15 and June 20.<\/p>\n

Illegal tobacco, vapes and cigarettes with a street value of more than \u00a3700,000 were also seized as well as cars, drugs and e-bikes.<\/p>\n

The operation centred on tackling crime at premises that included barber shops, vape shops, car washes, food production and nail salons – with the NPCC saying such businesses are often targeted by criminal gangs as they “provide opportunities to conceal illegal working, to exploit vulnerable migrants, and to launder proceeds of crime”.<\/p>\n

The operation involved most UK police forces working alongside agencies including the Home Office, Immigration Enforcement and Trading Standards. A total of 362 arrests were made.<\/p>\n

Minister for border security and asylum Alex Norris said it was an example of “targeted collaboration between the police, immigration enforcement and other partners”.<\/p>\n

The crackdown comes after a new \u00a330m High Street organised crime unit was announced in May<\/a> following a BBC News investigation into illegal mini-marts, vape shops and barbers.<\/p>\n

As of June there had been 11,638 arrivals to the UK via small boats this year – a figure that is 37% lower than the same period in 2025.<\/p>\n

Deputy Chief Constable Wendy Gunney, the NPCC\u2018s organised immigration crime domestic taskforce lead, said: “This multi-agency activity sends a clear message to organised crime gangs that law enforcement agencies are working together to tackle illegal trade within our communities, and to bring offenders to justice.”<\/p>\n

Civil penalties for business owners and those connected with employing migrants through illegal working were also being considered, she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 300 people have been arrested across the UK, including 57 migrants who had crossed the Channel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-669035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669035","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=669035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}