Mr Bigs cut down to size
Reporter: Andrew Rudkin
Date published: 12 December 2012
A TOTAL of £6.3 million in cash, drugs and assets have been seized by police in Oldham in less than a year.
Greater Manchester Police figures show the full scale of the battle against organised crime across the borough.
Operation Caminada has seen £5.7million worth of drugs, including several kilos of heroin, confiscated in the borough in the past 12 months.
Guns, 26 vehicles and more than £100,000 worth of expensive items such as designer watches were also consfiscated.
A dozen organised crime groups have been identified, with 21 arrests and 168 addresses searched in relation to organised crime.
Operation Caminada investigates every aspect of a suspect’s life to find those living off the proceeds of crime. Investigations with the Department for Work and Pensions found members of gangs and their families claimed £250,000 in benefits over the year, resulting in £120,000 in benefits being stopped.
Chief Supt Tim Forber, head of Oldham police, said: “This joint initiative has dealt a severe blow to those engaged in organised criminality.”
A HIGH-impact day of action against organised crime saw two arrests made in Oldham yesterday.
Officers smashed through doors as they raided the homes of suspected gang members involved in everything from drug dealing, theft, benefit fraud to loan-sharking.
Two men were arrested during dawn raids at Brewerton Road and Howard Street and were still being questioned today.
The England Illegal Money Lending Team worked in partnership with Greater Manchester Police, Oldham Council Trading Standards to raid the two homes in the borough yesterday — which includes the arrest of a 26-year-old suspected loan shark.
Raids were also carried out in Tameside, and other areas of Greater Manchester where a further eight arrests were made.
Assistant Chief Constable Steve Heywood, who is Greater Manchester Police’s (GMP) commander for yesterday’s Operation Challenger, which was piloted in Oldham, Tameside and North Manchester, hopes the initiative can dismantle crime networks which cause misery and hardship to communities.
He said: “This is not about cutting off the arm of an organised crime group, but dismantling it piece by piece, member by member.”
“If you want to bring down the so-called Mr Bigs, you need to strip away their empire. And when you start to pull on the threads of what appears to be minor offences, the whole empire begins to unravel.”
The operation, which has the support of the Home Office, could be rolled out across Greater Manchester and across the country in future months.
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