UK Policing News

A haul of a cutting agent that would make the illegal drug Amphetamine, worth around £2.5 million at street level, has been seized in Blackpool as part of a National Crime Agency investigation. Lancashire Police officers, acting on NCA intelligence, stopped a van in the Wheeton area on Friday [4 December]. More than 620kg of the drug precursor APAA was discovered in 28 boxes. Organised criminals would use the precursor to make around £1 million of Amphetamine at wholesale, worth £2.5million at street level, which would then be trafficked around the country. Officers arrested the driver, a 64-year-old man from Liverpool, on suspicion of producing a class B drug. He has …

A shocking video which appears to show a police officer telling a YouTuber who was filming High Wycombe police station to show his ID or “f*** off” before handcuffing him is being investigated. https://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/news/18909839.high-wycombe-police-station-youtube-video-showing-police-officer-swearing-man-goes-viral/ Shorter video in link, longer video below

A Romanian lorry driver has been charged with attempting to smuggle migrants – including a man suspected of child sex offences – out of the UK on two separate occasions. 48-year-old Sebastian Gabriel Podar was arrested as part of a National Crime Agency operation at the port of Dover in the early hours of Wednesday 2 December. Nine migrants were discovered in the rear of his HGV, which was booked onto a ferry to France. Among the nine was a 39-year-old Bangladeshi man under investigation for child sexual offences by Nottinghamshire Police. He was arrested and now faces charges. The remaining eight migrants, of Indian, Algerian and Bangladeshi nationality, were hande…

A woman from Walsall and the boyfriend she used as a courier to import firearms for organised crime groups have been jailed for over 23 years. A National Crime Agency investigation revealed that Chelsea Addison, 30, paid for Steven Dema, also 30, from Blackpool, to travel to Amsterdam to collect a Zastava assault rifle, a Zoraki 9mm pistol and over 100 rounds of ammunition. Addison and Dema were sentenced to 11 years, 6 months and 11 years, 9 months’ imprisonment respectively following a hearing at Canterbury Crown Court yesterday (2 December). The guns and ammunition, in addition to £4,500 in cash, were recovered when Dema was stopped in a hired Mercedes sports…

Two suspected people smugglers have been arrested along with five migrants they are accused of bringing into the country, as part of a National Crime Agency investigation into organised immigration crime. The pair, both Vietnamese men, were detained in the Deptford area yesterday (2 December). In the same car with them were five Vietnamese migrants, four men and a woman, who it is suspected had been smuggled into the country just hours before. They were detained on suspicion of entering the UK illegally. A kilo of what is believed to be heroin was also recovered, with one of the male migrants additionally being arrested for drug smuggling offences. Searches of two …

The National Economic Crime Centre (NECC), in conjunction with the Independent Schools Council (ISC) and the Independent Schools' Bursars Association (ISBA), has published an alert on the money laundering risks faced by independent schools. Graeme Biggar, NECC Director General said: “The UK’s independent school sector is internationally well regarded and attracts students from all over the world. Sometimes, people who have accumulated significant wealth through corruption or other forms of serious crime will attempt to secure school places for their children or the children of associates. This exposes the sector to significant reputational risks. Some of these individu…