Specialist police teams dedicated to tackling organised crime across the country made more than 3,000 arrests and seized class A drugs worth over £100 million last year, as they continued to target the UK’s most serious criminals. Throughout 2022, the nine Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs) in England and Wales pursued those behind organised crime…
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A Trowbridge man has been jailed for five years after pleading guilty to sexual communication with a child. Gary Palmer, 42, of The Halve, pleaded guilty to one count of sexual communication with a child and nine counts of causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity. He was sentenced at…
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More than 40 people have been visited at homes from Tewksbury to Penzance and 119 warning letters issued as part of a regional operation to identify people who, often unwittingly, are acting as money mules for organised criminals. Being a money mule, which means allowing your bank account to be used by criminals to transfer…
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A 62-year-old man has been jailed after arranging to meet what he thought was a child to rape when instead officers were waiting to arrest him. William Trevor Smith, of Denton Road in Audenshaw, Manchester drove the long distance to Gloucester to meet and rape what he thought was a 10-year-old child. Smith had in…
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South West police seized more than five kilos of drugs and tens of thousands of pounds worth of cash during a region-wide crackdown codenamed Operation Scorpion. Operation Scorpion is a collaboration between the five police forces in the South West region (Avon and Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire), alongside their respective offices…
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As part of Operation Elaborate – the UK’s biggest ever fraud operation led by the Metropolitan Police – officers from the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit (SWROCU) executed a warrant on November 10 and arrested a 21-year old man. The man from Knowle West in Bristol was arrested on suspicion of fraud by false…
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More than 230 kilos of cocaine have been seized and four people arrested following an investigation by the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit (SWROCU), supported by the Metropolitan Police, UK Border Force, HMRC and the NCA. The investigation began in April when a shipping container delivered to a farm near Bridgwater in Somerset containing…
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Police are again appealing for help to locate wanted woman Emily MacArthur who has pleaded guilty to supplying controlled drug spice into prisons and importing class A drugs from Jamaica. MacArthur, 31, from Trowbridge, Wiltshire, was last seen in February in Bristol. She was on bail for the offences and failed to attend Swindon Crown…
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A man has been sentenced to 11 years and seven months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply controlled drug spice into prisons, being concerned in the supply of heroin and cocaine, and possession of criminal property. The conviction of Dennis Obasi, 27, of no fixed abode, follows an investigation by the South…
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Three men have been jailed today (1 November 2022) for a total of more than 30 years for their roles in an organised crime network that saw huge quantities of drugs and cash moved between London, the Midlands and the West Country. Adil Riaz, 31, (pictured above) formerly of Grimesthorpe, Sheffield was sentenced to 24…
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