Dozens of police raid homes in East Lancashire car crime gangs probe

In Blackburn, target teams swooped on houses in Foxstones Crescent, Hurstwood Avenue and Brother Street, all in the Mill Hill area.

At the same time, uniformed officers executed warrants at Norfolk Grove, Richmond Avenue and Fairclough Road, Accrington.

Detectives launched the raids in a bid to crackdown on a number of thefts from cars at retail parks.

One location thought to be consistently targeted is the car park for the DW Soccerdome and gym in Haslingden Road, Blackburn.

Intelligence from vehicle crime target teams across East Lancashire has led officers to suspect a number of organised gangs are responsible.

In the past couple of months, 10 cars have had their locks forced with an instrument, with items stolen.

The raids yesterday morning, was part of ‘Operation Tricky’ aimed at recovering stolen goods, disrupting and reducing offences at retail parks and reassuring the community.

But just one arrest was made at a semi-detached house Hurstwood Avenue, where a man was detained on suspicion of extracting electricity.

Forced entry was used on a back door to gain entry and officers also used similar methods at the Foxstones address as neighbours watched from doorways and windows.

But officers said the raids were just the start of their crackdown.

Hyndburn Geographic Inspector David Mangan pledged to continue to execute further warrants.

He said: “This is the start of a crackdown and there will be further raids to follow.

“We are linking offences together to build a picture of criminal activity.

“We will continually be gathering evidence and making arrests. We will progress this investigation at a later date. This is not the end of the matter.

“Although we have not had many arrests, it proves we are taking the fight to the criminals and has a disruption effect no reducing crime.”

Sergeant James Black of Blackburn Police said: “This is the first phase of an ongoing operation to disrupt criminals targeting vehicles."