Edgware safe deposit business raided

2:31pm Tuesday 3rd June 2008

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Police have raided an Edgware safe depository which they supsected was being used to store criminal assets.

The building, in Manor Park Crescent, was one of three depositories run by private firm Safe Deposit Centres to be searched. Two others were raided in Hampstead and London's Park Lane along with an office and three residential addresses.

The investigation, which involved 300 police officers, was the first of this scale the Metropolitan Police has ever conducted against criminals using this type of secure storage.

Codenamed Operation Rize, the swoop followed two years of intelligence which linked the three businesses to organised crimes including paedophilia, firearms, drug trafficking, fraud, human trafficking, prostitution and money laundering.

The three vaults contain an estimated 7,000 boxes ranging in size from A4 drawers to walk-in cupboards. Police suspect up to 90 per cent of them may contain criminal assets.

Each safe deposit box is being treated as a potential crime scene.

The enquiry, being carried out by the Met's Specialist Crime Directorate, is focused on those individuals thought to be using the premises for criminal purposes and searches are likely to take some time to complete.

Proceeds of crime legislation is being used to enable the police to disrupt and dismantle criminal networks who are using the safe depository business to facilitate money laundering.

Met Police Assistant Commissioner John Yates said: "We believe that this operation has targeted the very heart of those providing these facilities and has the potential to impact upon many layers of serious crime.

"There are two clear messages from today. First, that the Met is and remains determined to tackle serious and organised crime at all levels and that include those that act more subtly in the background but who are often the key facilitators for those that commit serious crime.

"Second, that the Proceeds of Crime Act is very powerful legislation. It's there to ensure that crime does not pay and that there should be no place for criminal to hide their ill-gotten gains."

A 60-year-old man was arrested in Finchley Road, Hamsptead, and a 44-year-old woman was arrested in Park Street, Marble Arch, on suspicion of money laundering offences on Monday, while two men, aged 47 and 53, were arrested for obstruction in Park Road, Marble Arch.

They have all been taken to central London police stations and enquiries continue.

Anyone with information which may be of assistance to the investigation is encouraged to contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.