580 tonnes of counterfeit goods seized from Cheetham Hill shipping containers in 'record UK haul' worth £870m

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

More than 500 tonnes of counterfeit goods has been seized by police from shipping containers at a storage unit in Cheetham Hill in what's being described as a 'record haul in UK history'.

Greater Manchester Police said the mammoth seizure - collectively worth an estimated £870m - was also the largest single seizure in Europe in almost two decades.

Teams of officers spent 14 days breaking into 206 shipping containers from the unit, which was said by the force to be 'tucked away on the outskirts of Cheetham Hill'. Try MEN Premium for FREE by clicking here for no ads, fun puzzles and brilliant new features. In total, 580 tonnes of counterfeit items were found - including 'monumental quantities' of counterfeit clothes, drugs, illicit tobacco, Nitrous Oxide canisters and counterfeit vapes, GMP said in a statement on Monday night.

The seizure forms part of the hard-hitting and ongoing Operation Vulcan crackdown on shops selling fake and dangerous goods in the Cheetham Hill and Strangeways areas of Manchester - and the gangs responsible for their illegal trade. "The total loss to the criminal's pockets equates to a staggering £870 million," said the force in a statement, as they described Vulcan as 'the UK's largest police operation to tackle the counterfeit trade'. "The search warrants were developed from a covert operation and intelligence from the community and partners and saw a combination of over 100 officers and multiple agencies working together.