250 police in organised crime crackdown raids

More than 250 police officers took part in raids aimed at disrupting suspected organised crime groups in Greater Manchester.

Operation Rivercrest targeted homes in and around Heywood, Rochdale.

On Wednesday, 16 men aged between 19 and 49, and a 21-year-old woman were arrested on suspicion of offences including drugs supply, assault, violent disorder, affray, burglary, and robbery, GMP said.

After the arrests, the force said the work was carried out to "take the community back" for the people of Heywood.

The first raids began on Wednesday began at 05:00 BST, when officers smashed through doors and windows of the homes of people believed to hold senior positions within organised crime.

An hour later, a second wave of raids resulted in further arrests.

"This investigation has been six months in the making," said Det Sgt Hannah Taala.

She said the plans were formed after an episode of violent disorder back in April.

"Due to those arrests, we managed to seize a lot of mobile phones, and then we got a lot of evidence of other criminality," Taala said.

She said there has been violence, serious assaults, stabbings, drug offences, and "heaps of theft" in the area since.

"They were wreaking havoc, terror, and leaving people frightened, and nobody wants to stop them.

"So, it's down to us because we're not scared of them."

Among the items retrieved were machetes, Class A drugs such as heroin and cocaine, and Class B drugs such as cannabis and ketamine.

"We don't want gangs running around with machetes and fighting people.

"It's had such a big impact on people, especially vulnerable ones who have had their houses taken over so people can use them to bag up drugs."

She added: "Heywood is a very tight-knit community with really nice people, so we wanted to take the community back for them."

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