UK Policing News

A Chinese national who was responsible for operating a network of properties used by organised crime groups for prostitution or cannabis farms has pleaded guilty to 22 fraud, false ID and money laundering offences. National Crime Agency officers arrested 43-year-old Feng Xu at his home address in Holliday Street, Birmingham on Tuesday 14 May as part of a major investigation into modern slavery and human trafficking. Investigators found evidence that Xu had used multiple false identities to source hundreds of different properties for a number of criminal networks. 31 different false or fraudulent Chinese or Portuguese passports were also recovered, along with numerous …

Suspected members of an international organised crime group responsible for importing in excess of 50 tonnes of drugs worth billions of pounds into the UK from the Netherlands have been arrested today, as part of a National Crime Agency investigation. Thirteen men, aged between 24 and 59, were apprehended during dawn raids today, Tuesday 8 October, in London, Manchester, Stockport, St Helens, Warrington, Bolton, Dewsbury, and Leeds. They are believed to be part of the UK arm of a well-established organised crime group that used Dutch and British front companies to import heroin, cocaine and cannabis – secreted within lorry loads of vegetables and juice – through UK po…

An automotive engineer has admitted paying two women to sexually abuse children online, after a National Crime Agency investigation. Dean Petley, 30, met the women on an adult services website. He paid one woman, Jodie Little, who called herself ‘devil bitch 666’, £750 from January 2017 to February 2018 to see her sexually abuse two young children. Little, 30, originally from Huddersfield was jailed in August for 12 years and four months for the crimes. Petley, of Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, paid the second woman £2,285 over three years to watch her sexually abuse a young girl. In July last year the NCA became aware of Little, who also used the online name ‘Dom…

Four men have been arrested by the National Crime Agency and the French police as part of an ongoing investigation into an attempt to smuggle migrants into the UK which resulted in the death of an Iranian woman. The woman went into the water from an inflatable vessel as it tried to cross the Channel on 9 August. This incident took place around 25 miles off the coast of Ramsgate. Her body was later recovered off the Dutch coast. The first man to be held, a 31-year-old Iranian national, was in the same boat during the crossing. In addition to the UK arrest, two men, both Iranian nationals, were interviewed under caution by NCA investigators in the Liverpool and Lancas…

Cleveland Police is to be put into special measures after an inspection by the police watchdog. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-49529255

Carl Beech: Police searches over VIP abuse claims 'unlawful' 4 October 2019 Related TopicsCarl Beech case Image copyright Gloucestershire Police Image caption Carl Beech was jailed for 18 years a…

Two Eastern European men found with drugs worth £2.7 million have been jailed following an investigation by the Organised Crime Partnership. Aleksandar Uljaveric, 32, originally from Serbia, and Alexandru Mitu, 26, originally from Romania, were jailed at Kingston Crown Court today (Friday 4 October) for 12 years and eight years respectively. They pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing. On 12 June this year at around 7.30pm, officers from the OCP – a joint National Crime Agency and Metropolitan Police Unit – watched Mitu meet Uljaveric, who was wheeling a suitcase, in Brackenbury Gardens, Hammersmith. Uljaveric put the suitcase into the boot of Mitu’s car, and the pair…

The ringleader of an organised crime gang that used small boats to smuggle Albanian migrants across the English Channel has been told to pay back nearly £138,000 in criminal profits. The confiscation order was granted at the Old Bailey yesterday (Monday 30 September) against Leonard Powell, aged 68, from Farningham, Kent, who is currently serving a nine year prison sentence following an investigation by the National Crime Agency. A judge ruled that Powell has benefitted from his criminal activity to the sum of £268,294 but that he had available assets of £137,810. If he fails to pay up within six months he will receive an extra two years on his sentence, and will sti…