Stolen vehicles and parts recovered in police clamp down
A three-month police operation has recovered stolen vehicles worth £1.9m, car parts valued at £1.5m, as well as signal jammers, key scanners, cloned plates and engine cranes.
Operation Bumblebee, led by national intelligence unit Opal, saw 12 forces target organised criminals who are committing vehicle crime as part of largescale international operations.
As part of the operation, which included private companies specialising in vehicle recovery and tracking, almost 100 warrants were carried out with 214 arrests made and 10 chop shops identified and dismantled.
About 115,000 vehicles were stolen in the UK last year, with many ending up in chop shops due to the growing international demand for parts.
Organised crime
Detective chief inspector Kate Brummell, head of operations at Opal, said: “There’s no denying that the nature of car crime has changed in recent years. It’s now much less about opportunistic theft and instead is far more likely to be linked to organised crime and other types of offending.
“The demand for parts is really high at the moment, both in the UK and overseas. It’s far more difficult to trace individual parts than it is an entire car, and it’s also far easier to export parts, which is why we’re seeing an increasing number of chop-shops popping up.
“Thanks to ever-evolving tech, criminals are continuously finding to new ways to try and stay a step ahead of law enforcement, but our partnership approach, where we’re able to share intelligence and expertise – and importantly do so at pace – is having a real impact.
“These operations are not a one-off. Forces are working to tackle vehicle crime on a daily basis and more of these intensification periods are planned for this year and beyond, so I hope this sends a strong message to those criminals involved that it’s only a matter of time until we’re raiding their operations and bringing them to justice.”
