Cheshire motorways a ‘hostile place’ for serious criminals

This is the view of senior officers from Cheshire Police, who have vowed to make the county's arterial roads a ‘hostile environment’ for organised crime.

The ‘fullest extent’ of the law will be used against those looking to use the county’s motorways to distribute drugs, transport stolen property, engage in human trafficking or launder money.

Police gave the warning this morning, Thursday, during the unveiling of the force’s Operation Enforcing at an enforcement site based at Sandbach Services on the M6.

Operation Enforcing was unveiled by Cheshire Police to crackdown on road crime

The long-term campaign looks to target motorists connected to criminality, as well as those committing ‘Fatal 5’ offences which cause death and serious injury through crashes.

“We are saying quite clearly to criminals, it is our intention to deny you the use of our roads,” warned Superintendent Jon Betts, head of roads policing for Cheshire.

“If you want to distribute drugs, if you are involved in people trafficking, if you are moving large amounts of cash – we will target you and we will make this a hostile environment for you here in Cheshire.

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“As Cheshire residents, we have fantastic connectivity to Liverpool and Manchester, and to international airports and docks.

“Our ability to move around and through the county with the network we have is a great benefit of living and working here, but we also acknowledge criminals will seek to make use of those opportunities as well.

“We are saying we want everybody, every resident of Cheshire, to feel safe when they are going about and using our road network – unless you are a criminal.

“You should not feel safe to commit crime in Cheshire because we are looking for you. We will use the ANPR network and all the tactics available to us to create a hostile environment.”

Operation Enforcing was unveiled by Cheshire Police to crackdown on road crime

This was echoed by Inspector Anton Sullivan, in charge of Cheshire Police’s Roads and Crime Unit, who added: “It is not just drugs, it is also stolen property, people wanted for offences, money laundering, human trafficking and county lines, where vulnerable people are being targeted and used to commit crime.

“We use technology, our experience as officers and intelligence from a myriad of different sources to target and track criminals.

“We do this very successfully in this county, and the message goes that if you are travelling to or through the county to commit crime, regardless of what it is, we will be out looking for you and deal with you with any method we can, and use the law to the fullest extent.”