Hundreds of American-themed sweet shops, Turkish barbers and car washes have been swooped on as part of a mammoth police crackdown on high street money laundering.
Officers from 19 police forces across England knocked on the doors of 265 premises, that also included nail bars, mini-marts and vape shops, which were being used by criminals to hide dirty cash.
In total, officers froze assets totalling more than £1million in bank accounts, executed 85 warrants and made 35 arrests over a three-week period.
Operation Machinize – a widespread crackdown on gangs using their cash-intensive businesses for fraud, money laundering and selling illicit goods – also saw 55 people questioned about their immigration status and a further 97 safeguarded over potential modern slavery.
Police seized more than £40,000 in cash, 200,000 cigarettes, 7,000 packs of tobacco, more than 8,000 illegal vapes and two vehicles.
Additionally, two cannabis farms were discovered containing a total of 150 plants.
The investigation, led by the National Crime Agency (NCA), resulted in the closure of 10 shops with more expected as a result of ongoing investigations.
Security Minister Dan Jarvis said such operations aim to create an ‘even more hostile environment for organised crime.’
Hundreds of American-themed sweet shops have been raided as part of a mammoth police crackdown on high street money laundering
Turkish barbers were among the businesses targeted by Operation Machinize. Pictured: Bodycam footage shows officers smashing their way into barber shops as part of the operation, last month
The raids were carried out by the regional police forces, alongside Trading Standards, Home Office Immigration Enforcement, HMRC and other partners in the first co-ordinated action of this kind.
According to the NCA, £12billion of criminal cash is thought to be generated in the UK each year, which is typically smuggled out of the country or integrated into the legitimate financial system through money laundering techniques.
Among the raids undertaken in Rochdale, Greater Manchester Police found some of the staff at mini-marts were Kurdish, Iraqi or Iranian asylum seekers, who were working in the UK illegally, the BBC reported.
Meanwhile officers also recovered several drugs, including brown powder believed to be heroin, vials of testosterone, nitrous oxide and Xanax tranquillisers, as well as a machete.
Over in Shrewsbury, officers from West Mercia Police raided a barbershop suspected of dealing in illicit cigarettes and vapes, illegal immigration and drug dealing – where they then discovered thousands of pounds in cash.
Det Insp Daniel Fenn, said some barber shops are claiming an income of £100,000 to £150,000 a month – far above the average many others receive.
‘They aren’t getting that amount of customers to warrant that amount of money,’ he added.
Rachael Herbert, deputy director of the National Economic Crime Centre at the NCA, which provided intelligence to local forces, said: ‘Operation Machinize targeted barbershops and other high street businesses being used as cover for a whole range of criminality, all across the country.
A West Mercia Police officer speaks to a man inside one of the Turkish barbers raided last month as part of Operation Machinize
Sniffer dogs were brought along on the raids last month on the shops, which were allegedly being used as fronts for criminal activity
Police seized more than £500,000 in dirty cash, along with £16,000 and arrested seven people after swooping on 33 premises last month as part of Operation Machinize. Pictured: An officer inspects a document during one of the raids
‘We have seen links to drug trafficking and distribution, organised immigration crime, modern slavery and human trafficking, firearms, and the sale of illicit tobacco and vapes.
‘We know cash-intensive businesses are used as fronts for money laundering, facilitating some of the highest harm and highest impact offending in the UK.
‘The excellent results from the first iteration of Operation Machinize are testament to the tireless work of officers across the country, and demonstrate our resolve to clamp down on organised criminality abusing the high street.’
Security Minister Dan Jarvis said: ‘High street crime undermines our security, our borders, and the confidence of our communities, and I am determined to take the decisive action necessary to bring those responsible to justice.
‘This successful NCA-led operation highlights the scale and complexity of the criminality our towns and cities face and demonstrates our collective determination to make our streets safer, a key pillar of this government’s Plan for Change.
‘We will continue to support the NCA, and other law enforcement partners, as we make the UK an even more hostile environment for organised crime.’
The latest crackdown follows a spate of police raids on Turkish barber shops last month, which saw the seizure of more than £500,000 in illegal cash.
Seven people were arrested during the swoop on 33 premises by West Mercia Police, as part of the NCA’s broader operation.
More than 750 barbers opened in the UK last year despite a widespread High Street downturn – raising suspicions that some are being used by gangs.
Detective Inspector Dan Fenn, of West Mercia Police’s Economic Crime team, said previously: ‘Organised crime groups are opportunistic and exploit legitimate businesses, such as barbershops, to hide their illegal cash flow.
‘The high cash turnover of these businesses makes them ideal for disguising illicit activities.
Barber Hewa Rahimpur, 30, was the lynchpin of a vast cross-Channel people smuggling operation
He is seen here being arrested by NCA officers in East London. He was later extradited to Belgium to face trial
‘Our work during Operation Machinize sends a clear message to these crime networks: we will not tolerate criminal activity in our communities.’
Drugs expert Gary Carroll, who spent more than 10 years in law enforcement and now gives court testimony on street drug gangs, recently revealed there was a ‘copycat’ aspect to the exploitation of the Turkish barber format by criminals.
‘It’s a well trodden path that one crime group will just copy another when they see something is working,’ he told MailOnline.
‘And while we are increasingly moving away from cash as a society, barbers are still predominantly cash based – something they can get away with because the fees they charge are relatively low.
‘Then there’s the added attraction of this being an unregulated market that isn’t monitored by any government body. So there’s a lack of enforcement, without the one-off hygiene checks you’d get with food businesses.’
Shops marketing themselves as ‘Turkish’ barbers are often run by other nationalities, including Kurds and Albanians.
Even so, Mr Carroll drew a link between the rise of Turkish barber shops and the continuing popularity of heroin trafficked by gangs from the country and elsewhere in Asia.
‘When we look at money laundering there’s the well established affiliation with Turkish heroin, and the demand for that is certainly not decreasing in the UK,’ he said.
Traditional Turkish-style barbers are known for stylish haircuts – usually completed with a hot towel and cut-throat razor.
But there have long been concerns about criminals infiltrating the trade.
In the UK barbers do not have to register as a business with Companies House, with the option to instead operate as a sole trader.
Some shops also let individual chairs to hairdressers.
The arrest of people smuggler Hewa Rahimpur in 2022 was one of the early signs of the dark reality behind the barber shop boom.
Rahimpur and his gang of fellow Iranian Kurds were detained on suspicion of bringing 10,000 migrants into Dover from the French coast on small boats.
The 30-year-old, who had arrived in the UK illegally and was granted asylum after claiming to have suffered ‘political oppression’ in his home country, was driving a top-of-the-range Mercedes when he was caught by police.
His gang had netted £13million in cash from the crossings and it needed to be laundered somehow, so Rahimpur, a former barber, entered the hairstyling business a few years ago in Camden, North London.
He was extradited from the UK to stand trial in Belgium last year and is now serving an 11-year sentence for people-trafficking.
In a second high-profile trial, 33-year-old Afghani Gul Wali Jabarkhel was accused of using his barber shop in Colindale, North London, as a base for a smuggling racket in which he tried to recruit lorry drivers to bring migrants to the UK hidden in their cargo.
In a second high-profile trial, 33-year-old Afghani Gul Wali Jabarkhel was accused of using his barber shop in Colindale, North London, as a base for a smuggling racket
Boss Crew Barbers in West London, whose owner was sentenced to 12 years last year for sending £11,000 to ISIS supporters in Syria
Scores of American-style candy stores have been the subject of raids for selling banned treats. Pictured: Products including illicit Lucky Charms cereal and KitKats containing dangerous ingredients that were seized from a London store in October
After realising police were watching him, in 2020 Jabarkhel fled to Kabul, Afghanistan.
Jabarkhel was convicted alongside three others after a trial two years ago at Kingston Crown Court for his role in what the NCA described as a ‘ruthless operation when human beings were little more than goods to profit from’.
Some salons have also been linked to terrorism, with Tarek Namouz, proprietor of West London hairdresser Boss Crew Barbers, sentenced to 12 years last year for sending £11,000 to Syria to ‘purchase weapons and explosives’ to use against President Assad’s government forces.
The barber, who lived above his salon in Hammersmith, boasted to a prison visitor while on remand awaiting trial that he had actually managed to send £25,000 to the ISIS supporters that he was financing.
Meanwhile scores of American-style candy stores have been the subject of raids for selling banned treats including US sweets, cereals, crisps and fizzy drinks containing additives, colourings and e-numbers banned in the UK over known links to hyperactivity and cancer in children.
Such shops have also been known to sell supersize vapes with tanks many times the size of the UK legal limit of 2ml and twice the legal amount of nicotine.
