In a series of dramatic law enforcement actions this week, British authorities have struck a blow against two major criminal networks operating across the country, exposing the vast reach and deep entrenchment of organized crime on both the nation’s High Streets and its international borders. The two cases, revealed through a combination of BBC investigative journalism and coordinated police operations, have underscored the scale and sophistication of criminal enterprises involved in drug trafficking, illegal immigration, and the shadow economy.
On November 27, 2025, three men were arrested in dawn raids across Birmingham and the West Midlands, following a BBC News investigation into organized crime gangs exploiting everyday businesses. According to BBC News, two Iranian nationals, aged 32 and 28, were apprehended alongside a 43-year-old naturalised British citizen. The men are being held on suspicion of facilitating illegal entry into the UK and enabling illegal working, as authorities attempt to dismantle a network that has quietly flourished in plain sight.
This crackdown comes after the BBC uncovered more than 100 mini-marts, car washes, and barber shops—from Dundee to south Devon—linked to a suspected Kurdish crime network. The investigation revealed how these businesses not only provided illegal employment for migrants but also served as outlets for counterfeit cigarettes and other illicit goods. In one particularly brazen example, an asylum seeker whose claim had been rejected was found trying to sell a mini-mart for £18,000 in cash.
Andy Radcliffe, Assistant Director from Immigration Enforcement, is spearheading the response. He told the BBC that after their initial report, an investigation was "immediately launched" involving HMRC, the National Crime Agency, Companies House, police forces, and Trading Standards. Radcliffe emphasized the gravity of the situation, stating, "We're taking this very seriously...people could go to prison for this, we could take assets off them, so we're taking it very seriously." He described the current arrests as just the beginning of a broader effort to "try and tackle the widespread abuse" of Britain’s labor market.
The government has acknowledged that loose regulation of the labor market has become a magnet for those seeking to enter the UK illegally. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, when questioned by the BBC about whether authorities had lost control of High Streets to organized Kurdish crime gangs, admitted, "What your reporters were able to scrutinise and show is absolutely evidence of why our system is broken. It's why this government has been cracking down on illegal working."
In response to the mounting evidence and public concern, the Chancellor’s 2025 Budget included funding for 45 new Trading Standards officers, while Rachel Reeves, a senior government official, announced plans for "additional enforcement activity on High Streets, focusing on illicit tobacco and vaping products." This initiative will be bolstered by 350 newly recruited criminal investigators as part of the fraud investigation team. The government’s message is clear: the days of unchecked illegal working and counterfeit sales on Britain’s High Streets are numbered.
Minister for Migration and Citizenship Mike Tapp praised the BBC investigation, saying, "Really it shows the value of the BBC." He emphasized the need for continued vigilance: "I hate what these, you know, hairdressers, nail bars and dodgy vape shops are doing to, so many of our high streets, not just for the look and feel of them, but also for those genuine businesses that are being undercut. So it's really important that we continue to work hard to combat this."
While authorities were targeting illicit activity at street level, another dramatic chapter unfolded in the battle against organized crime with the sentencing of Francis Coggins, a fugitive gang boss of the notorious Huyton Firm. As reported by BBC News, Coggins, 60, was jailed for 18 years after being extradited from Holland, where he had spent five years evading capture in the coastal town of Zandvoort. His arrest came in June 2025, when Dutch police detained him for being drunk and disorderly.
Coggins pleaded guilty to conspiracies to import and supply cocaine and heroin. The Liverpool Crown Court heard that the Huyton Firm, co-led by Francis and his younger brother Vincent Coggins, orchestrated the smuggling of at least 1.013 tonnes of Class A drugs—cocaine and heroin—into the UK between May 2019 and October 2020. The drugs, with a minimum wholesale value of £16.2 million, were distributed locally in Merseyside, across the country, and as far north as Scotland.
The sophistication of the operation was staggering. Prosecutor Alex Langhorn told the court the gang used a corrupt insider at a UPS depot—Daniel Taylor, a team leader at the Deeside branch—who intercepted consignments and handed them to the criminals. The smuggling route itself was devised by another Liverpool drug dealer, Christopher Gibney. The brothers’ operation was so extensive that, according to Langhorn, "the organised crime group were engaged in sourcing, storing and supplying wholesale, multi-kilogram quantities of cocaine and heroin. They sold to people locally on Merseyside, across the country, and up to Scotland."
Communications between the brothers also revealed their links to Thomas Cashman, a Liverpool drug dealer now serving a life sentence for the murder of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel in 2022. Cashman had turned to the Coggins brothers for help importing "botts"—slang for kilogram blocks of heroin. Vincent Coggins was arrested in June 2020 after French police hacked the Encrochat encrypted phone network, which criminals used almost exclusively to coordinate their activities.
The gang’s dominance was not without risk. In May 2020, they were robbed of cocaine worth around £1 million during a violent raid at a Liverpool stash-house, where the occupant was slashed with a machete. Police intervened when it appeared Vincent Coggins was plotting a wave of violence in retaliation, though the court heard Francis, who was in Holland at the time, was not involved in planning reprisals. Still, he kept a close eye on developments, messaging his brother, "They're all terrified of you."
Judge Robert Trevor-Jones, in passing sentence, concluded that both brothers were "at the pinnacle" of the Huyton Firm. He told Francis Coggins, "You were directing or organising the buying and or selling of these drugs on a commercial scale. You had substantial links to and influence on others in a chain and you had an expectation of a substantial financial advantage." Detective Chief Inspector Dave Worthington from the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit told the BBC, "You don't fall into drug dealing at the level they're at overnight... The investigation showed that the scale and level of reach that they had was truly phenomenal really."
The twin stories—of High Street exploitation and international drug trafficking—highlight not only the scale of organized crime in the UK but also the challenges facing law enforcement and policymakers. As authorities ramp up enforcement and legislative efforts, the public can only hope these latest actions mark a turning point in the ongoing struggle to reclaim Britain’s streets from criminal enterprise.
