Merseyside Police continues its relentless pursuit of organised crime groups

Our relentless pursuit of those involved in organised crime continues at pace and in the last 24 hours our disruption operation has led to a further 32 arrests; 66 stop searches; the execution of 11 warrants; seizure of eight vehicles and the organisation of eight land searches.

This takes the total number of arrests for the operation, codenamed Operation Miller, to 202 and we have carried out a total of 69 warrants.

Our Roads Policing officers are also out and about on major routes in and out of the city targeting those involved in organised crime who are using our road networks.
 
Yesterday a 31-year-old man from Old Swan, who was arrested for possession of an offensive weapon and possession of criminal property after being stop searched in Maskell Road, Old Swan. When he was searched officers found a lock knife and at a subsequent search of his address officers recovered more than £9,000 cash, a quantity of white powder and cannabis.

A 33-year-old man from Dovecot was arrested following a stop search when he was found to be in possession of a Rolex watch, that is believed to have been stolen. 

Whilst two men, aged 18 and 22 years from Wavertree and Speke respectively, were arrested on suspicion of aggravated unauthorised taking of a motor vehicle; dangerous driving; possession of a bladed article and assault police. Officers had attempted to stop a Volvo car being driven erratically on Derby Road, Bootle.  A short pursuit was carried out and the offenders tried to escape, but were arrested by officers nearby. One of the men was found to be in possession of a knife. 

Detective Chief Superintendent and Head of Investigations, Mark Kameen, said: “If you are involved in serious organised crime on Merseyside we are not going anywhere soon and we will continue to disrupt the criminality you are involved in. The communities of Dovecot, Old Swan and Dingle are still reeling from the murders that have taken place in the areas they call home and we owe it to them to stop those involved in serious organised crime, which can result in innocent members of our communities being seriously injured or killed.

"Our resources have been significantly boosted by officers from across the UK (investigation, firearms and uniformed officers) and we will leave no stone unturned in our search for those who killed nine-year old Olivia Pratt-Korbel, Ashley Dale and Sam Rimmer. The actions of these individuals has also turned our attention to organised crime groups who are blighting the lives of decent, law abiding members of the community, and we are acting on information coming in to take them out so we can to make our streets safer for the future.

"Information from our communities in relation to the murders is still coming in and we are acting on all the information we receive. The murder of Olivia in her own home, the place where she should have been safest, has crossed all boundaries and detectives and uniformed officers are working round the clock to find the person, or persons responsible."

Anyone with information is asked to DM @MerPolCC or contact @CrimestoppersUK on 0800 555 111. We also have the dedicated Major Incident Public Portal (MIPP) on our website where you can download CCTV, Dashcam and smart doorbell footage. If you have footage you think could be crucial to our investigations go to Public Portal (mipp.police.uk)