Barbershops and other cash-intensive businesses across England have been targeted by police and other law enforcement officers during a three-week crackdown on high street crime.

In total, 380 premises were visited across Operation Machinize, where officers secured freezing orders over bank accounts totalling more than £1m, executed 84 warrants and made 35 arrests.

The operation saw 55 individuals questioned about their immigration status and a further 97 individuals safeguarded in relation to potential modern slavery.

In addition, officers seized more than £40,000 in cash, some 200,000 cigarettes, 7,000 packs of tobacco, over 8,000 illegal vapes and two vehicles. Two cannabis farms were also found, containing a total of 150 plants. Ten shops have been shut, with further closures expected as a result of on-going investigations.

The NCA estimates that £12bn of criminal cash is generated in the UK each year, which is typically smuggled out of the country or integrated into the legitimate financial system using a variety of laundering techniques.

Cash-intensive businesses such as barbershops, vape shops, nail bars, American-themed sweet shops and car washes are often used by criminals to conceal the origins of illicit cash.

Crime gangs use them to enter cash into the financial system, mixing legitimate funds with criminal profits to hinder subsequent law enforcement investigations. They are known to buy such businesses using the proceeds of crime, which provides them with a legitimate income and opportunities for money laundering.

The crackdown, which is part of the NCA’s continued disruption of cash being laundered in the UK, involved 19 different police forces and Regional Organised Crime Units, as well as national agencies including HMRC, Trading Standards and Home Office Immigration Enforcement.

*Update: 380 premises were visited across Operation Machinize

It was supported by the National Police Chiefs’ Council and coordinated by the NCA’s National Economic Crime Centre, which provided intelligence to assist local forces, as well as funding for operational activity.

Rachael Herbert, Deputy Director of the National Economic Crime Centre at the NCA, said:

“Operation Machinize targeted barbershops and other high street businesses being used as cover for a whole range of criminality, all across the country.

“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.

“Here at the National Economic Crime Centre, we coordinate UK-wide action, and lead cross-system efforts to make our financial system more resilient.

“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.”

10 April 2025