On November 11, 2025, the United Kingdom’s high streets became the focus of the largest crackdown on illicit business activity in the country’s history. In a sweeping operation coordinated by the National Crime Agency (NCA) and dubbed Operation Machinize, thousands of police officers and enforcement officials targeted cash-rich businesses suspected of being exploited for money laundering, illegal working, and the sale of illicit goods. The scale and ambition of the operation sent shockwaves through communities from Herefordshire to Essex, and from Doncaster to Shropshire.
According to BBC News, the month-long campaign saw raids on Chinese takeaways, vape shops, massage parlours, barbers, minimarts, nail bars, car washes, phone shops, and sweet shops. More than 2,734 premises were visited across the UK, with a staggering 924 arrests made. The authorities seized over £10.7 million in criminal proceeds, including millions of illegal tobacco products and vapes, more than £500,000 in cash, and 70 kilograms of cannabis. Trading Standards officers also confiscated approximately £50,000 worth of illegal goods, and £2.7 million worth of illicit products were destroyed.
Operation Machinize, first launched 18 months ago, has become a central pillar in the UK’s fight against what officials describe as a “tipping point” in high street criminality. Rachael Herbert, director of the National Economic Crime Centre at the NCA, told The Independent, “Thousands of officers have been deployed up and down our country, targeting criminal profits and the means of generating them. Hundreds of thousands of harmful and illegal products have been taken off our streets, and over £10 million in cash, frozen in bank accounts and criminal assets seized.”
In Herefordshire and Worcestershire, BBC News reporters joined police as they forced open doors with battering rams and steel tools. Erin Brown, a West Mercia Police financial intelligence officer, explained the scale of the problem: “This type of crime is taking place in every street in the country.” She described how illegal goods were often hidden in microwaves, behind tills, or in secret compartments built into walls and basements. In one striking case, a village corner shop was found to have banked nearly £200,000 in just one month, while its owner drove a Ferrari valued at more than £260,000. “Their annual turnover is £414,000 which, for a small takeaway in such a small town, we don’t think is viable,” Brown said, raising suspicions of money laundering and even human trafficking.
The operation was painstakingly planned, with weeks of evidence gathering involving the National Crime Agency, HM Revenue & Customs, Home Office Immigration Enforcement, and Trading Standards. Over 60 officers squeezed into briefing rooms before dawn raids, targeting businesses based on their level of “threat and risk.” Detective Sergeant Rachel O’Brien, who led several of the raids, explained, “Certain intelligence might be stressing drug dealing. We’ve had somewhere using children as runners for drugs, those are obviously high risk for us, so those are the ones we’d be targeting. Also, any immigration offences where people perhaps are being used as human slaves and people are being trafficked, they would be high risk as well.”
During the raids, police found illicit goods hidden in the most unlikely places. At one vape shop, a large medieval-style broad sword was surrendered, and a secret magnet-locked drawer was discovered containing illegal vapes. Elsewhere, officers seized four knives, one knuckleduster, two firearms, and cannabis. In total, nine people were arrested in Herefordshire and Worcestershire alone, with one woman detained for breaching her visa conditions after being caught deleting text messages at a massage parlour.
But the crackdown was not confined to a single region. The NCA reported that every police force in the UK participated, with more than 920 people arrested nationwide. Over 340 notices for illegal working and renting were issued, potentially exposing businesses and landlords to tens of thousands of pounds in fines. More than 450 registered businesses were referred to Companies House for further investigation. The illicit tobacco seized alone was estimated to be worth over £3.5 million in evaded duty, according to NCA figures.
Officials have long warned that cash-heavy businesses—such as barbers, vape shops, and takeaways—can be exploited by organised crime groups to launder dirty money, conceal drug profits, and facilitate people trafficking. The rapid expansion of such businesses is striking: in places like Essex and Doncaster, the number of barber shops has soared by 200 percent in just five years. Sal Melki, NCA deputy director for illicit finance, told The Independent, “Shops exploited by criminals can act as hubs for a range of poly-criminality. So it could be a convenient place to launder money or evade tax. It could also be a convenient place to move illicit commodities, hide the proceeds of drugs sales, or act as a meeting point for criminal associates.”
The operation’s reach extended into the world of white-collar crime as well. In West Yorkshire, police targeted an alleged crime gang accused of using a jeweller’s shop to run an investment fraud and launder proceeds. Assets seized included gold bars, a ring worth £500,000, and 30 luxury watches—some by Patek Philippe. A solicitor with a home valued at over £1 million was alleged to have authorised payments of £800,000 as part of the money-laundering scheme.
The government has taken note of the threat. Security minister Dan Jarvis told The Independent, “Criminals are using these dodgy shops as fronts for serious organised crime, money laundering and illegal working, risking the future of the British high street. We have intensified our joint efforts with law enforcement to dismantle criminal networks and relentlessly pursue those who use dirty money for personal gain.”
Senior politicians have also voiced concern that these criminal networks may act as a pull factor for illegal migration to the UK. BBC News reported that 25 Labour MPs have joined a campaign, led by Melanie Onn MP, to “shut down dodgy shops” and are calling for new legislative powers and tougher penalties for offenders. The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CSTI) described the threat of serious and organised crime on high streets as the “number one threat” facing its members, and called for strengthened resources and powers to close businesses involved in criminality.
Despite the impressive haul of arrests and seizures, officials acknowledge that the fight is far from over. The NCA estimates that at least £12 billion of criminal cash is generated in the UK each year, much of it smuggled abroad or reinvested in further criminal enterprise. As Rachael Herbert of the NCA put it, “Depriving criminals of their source of income has a real impact, limiting the amount of funds they can reinvest in further offending and deterring them from taking spaces on our high street that could be used by legitimate businesses.”
The message from Operation Machinize is clear: the days when criminal activity can hide behind the façade of everyday high street businesses are numbered. The scale of the crackdown may be unprecedented, but authorities insist it is only the beginning of a sustained effort to reclaim the nation’s high streets for law-abiding citizens and businesses.
