Overview
- Over two days this month, more than 300 officers searched over 120 premises using forensic tagging and specialist dogs to identify stolen goods, seizing items worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.
- Thirty-two people were arrested for offences including handling stolen goods, drug offences and immigration violations, and most were later bailed.
- Nine shops received emergency closure notices, with the Met saying it will ask courts for longer orders to keep suspect premises shut.
- At a Woolwich phone shop, officers seized about 2,000 devices, found hidden rooms with roughly £50,000 in gaming consoles, and received Apple confirmation that some phones, accessories and packaging were counterfeit.
- Further raids recovered more than 150 suspected stolen items in Bromley plus about £70,000 in cash and luxury watches, and an off-licence in Willesden was cleared of branded goods and closed by the London Fire Brigade.