Joint operation to tackle criminals across the South East of England

Surrey Police joined with a number of police forces to combat criminals who are exploiting the major road and rail networks to carry out offences last week.

Officers from Surrey, Thames Valley, Sussex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Warwickshire, British Transport Police and the Metropolitan Police were involved in the three-day initiative from 16-18 January.

The operation, co-ordinated by Thames Valley Police, used automatic number plate recognition technology and police intelligence to target vehicles on arterial roads and motorways.

The road network between force borders is often used to run ‘county lines’ drug operations so the operation focused on tackling offenders involved in drug-related harm and serious theft offences, such as burglary.

The operation resulted in a total of 121 arrests, the seizure of 92 vehicles, 19 weapons and a large quantity of drugs across the force areas.

Superintendent Andy Alexander, from Thames Valley Police, said: “This has been a very successful three-day operation. Officers from a number of police force areas were able to pull together their resources and proactively police our road and train networks to disrupt and detect some of our most serious criminal offenders.

“This operation was a joint effort and involved sharing proactive intelligence and enhancing existing relationships across different forces to target those involved in drug, gang and weapon-based violence.

“Organised criminal activity is not tolerated and offenders should know that police forces work together to disrupt them and to prevent them from disrupting our communities. We will continue to work tirelessly to protect our communities."