A TRI-BOROUGH anti-burglary operation led to a series of “priority suspects” being arrested across the areas.

Almost 100 officers from Barnet, Brent and Camden targeted offenders over an 11 day period earlier this month.

During Operation Callisto, which used visible and covert patrols, searches, intelligence operations around mini-cab firms and various squat addresses, police said there was a 44.3 per cent reduction in residential burglaries.

A total of 76 arrests were made, with 28 people charged and a further 19 released on bail pending further enquiries, whilst amongst those arrested for burglary, there was a 75 per cent charge rate.

Officers targeted minicab companies and their drivers in hotspot areas as these are often the means by which burglars transport their goods, detectives said.

Search warrants were also carried out at addresses identified through partnership work with authorities including Barnet Council's children's social services, environmental health, homeless action for Barnet, UK Borders Agency, and London Fire Brigade.

Six people were arrested for handling stolen goods and one person for possession of a class A drug. All the squats were closed down and officers recovered a quantity of jewellery, a laptop computer and class A and B drugs.

Detective Chief Inspector Iain Raphael, the Barnet Borough pro-active crime manager and operational lead, said: "Multi agency and cross borough operations like this allow us to use a great variety of resources and information to get some great results.

“This operation has seen the top 12 priority suspects connected with burglary arrested or disrupted and the results of that alone are great for the three boroughs.

“We will continue to find ways of protecting the homes of our residents and we will continue to make burglar's lives a misery wherever we can."