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Dawn raiders

Susannah Wright
8/11/2007

A SERIES of dawn raids has led to 21 people being arrested.

Suspects were arrested on a range of offences, including burglary, handling stolen goods, money laundering, theft from cars and drugs offences.

Two imitation firearms were discovered during the raids, and a large quantity of stolen goods were seized, including hundreds of cigarettes. Three women were among those arrested.

The swoop saw around 250 officers search addresses in Withington, Didsbury and Chorlton, in a crackdown on burglary in those areas.

The raids early on Tuesday, November 6, were a culmination of two-years of intelligence-gathering by detectives, under Operation Redbud.

Detective Inspector Will Chatterton, of South Manchester police said: “This has been a highly successful operation which has involved a lengthy period of intricate planning and has required the dedication of large team of officers. We are acutely aware of the issues of a large number of students living within South Manchester and their vulnerability, along with other groups, to the sort of crime that Operation Redbud has been dedicated to tackling.”

He added: “I hope that this action highlights how seriously we take these crimes.

“We remain fully committed to taking action against people who are involved in this type of criminal activity.

“For some, it becomes a lifestyle choice and this is clearly unacceptable. The arrests should act as a deterrent to those who think that their criminal endeavours will go unnoticed or will be tolerated. They simply won’t.”