A major new crime-fighting initiative, Operation Fearless, flooded Soho Road in Handsworth, Birmingham, with police officers, trading standards and immigration squads, dogs and horses, leading to 18 arrests within hours on Wednesday, May 13.
Rapid Results
Within hours of the operation starting at 10:30am, traffic officers aided by ANPR pulled drivers over into the Lidl car park for extensive checks. Ten vehicles were seized, including a cloned van driven by an uninsured driver. Another motorist, wanted for possession of indecent images of children, was arrested.
Some drivers attempted to flee but were chased. A 28-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of failing to stop and dangerous driving.
Drugs and Weapons Found
Plain clothes officers, with a sniffer dog, discovered a concealed drugs den off Barn Lane. Behind a small metal door was an open-air wasteland frequented by drug users. On Haseley Road, Sergeant Gareth Johnson detained a man hiding in an Audi, recovering 39 wraps of heroin, 56 wraps of crack cocaine, and a lock knife. The man was arrested on suspicion of drugs offences and possession of an offensive weapon. A search at a linked address recovered £9,000 in cash.
Trading Standards and Immigration Raids
Trading Standards and Immigration officers targeted a 24-hour 'Bob Shop', seizing illicit vapes and cigarettes. Home Office workers entered an upmarket Asian clothes shop, previously raided twice, to question workers about their immigration status and right to work in the UK.
In an off-licence raid, boxes of steroids, unlicensed medicines, blue sex pills, and cosmetics containing lead were found, along with illegal alcohol and unlabeled bottles. Trading Standards officer Mohammed Tariq noted: 'We found illicit tobacco, unlicensed blue sex pills, unlicensed medicines out of date, and cosmetics like eyeliner containing lead. Bottles with no labels mean we don't know what's inside.'
Police also seized two metal baseball bats and a machete from behind the counter, which the shopkeeper claimed were for cutting sugar cane.
Ongoing Commitment
Over the next nine months, an extra 20 officers will work with specific agencies to tackle crime and support vulnerable people. Deputy Chief Constable Jen Mattison explained: 'Soho Road and the Handsworth Triangle is our third area for deploying the Operation Fearless team. We look for three things: levels of crime and anti-social behaviour, community concern, and willingness of partners to work with us.'
