5:58 am, October 15, 2026
Police have recovered more than £2.6m worth of stolen vehicles and dismantled eight chop shops in a major nationwide crackdown on organised car crime.
The week-long operation saw officers seize 319 stolen vehicles and make 286 arrests as police forces joined forces to target criminal gangs involved in vehicle theft.
The third Operation Alliances, funded by the Home Office and led by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), involved 32 police force areas across the country.
Officers executed more than 100 warrants and carried out over 280 stop and searches, disrupting 20 organised crime gangs linked to offences including vehicle theft, drugs, firearms and burglary.
More than 50 charges have already been brought, with police expecting further charges to follow.
Eight chop shops were also discovered and shut down, with 18 of those arrested linked to the illegal operations.
The sites are used by criminals to store stolen vehicles, strip them for parts, remove tracking devices and fit cloned number plates.
Police recovered more than 300 vehicle parts worth in excess of £100,000, alongside equipment commonly used by car thieves.
Among the items seized were relay devices, key programmers, signal jammers, number plate printers, cloned plates and lock-picking equipment.
Officers also recovered a homemade ignition bypass switch, knives, machetes and drugs.
The operation targeted criminals involved in moving stolen vehicles overseas, with 1,090 vehicles stopped and checked at ports. A further 13 vehicles were seized during those checks.
In Lancashire, officers discovered a chop shop and cannabis farm in Blackburn, recovering ten suspected stolen vehicles, 1,125 cannabis plants and around £15,000 in cash.
A separate investigation into keyless car thefts saw officers seize a key programmer, diagnostic equipment, blank number plates and keys for Range Rovers, Toyota Hiluxes and Fords.
Meanwhile, Metropolitan Police officers uncovered a chop shop at an industrial unit in Romford, where seven stolen vehicles were found alongside parts from several other cars and signal jammers.
In Cambridgeshire, a man suspected of involvement in the use and distribution of high-value cloned vehicles was arrested while attempting to leave the UK.
Officers recovered a Porsche Macan, Ford Kuga and Audi Q3 worth a combined £70,000.
Sussex Police also charged two men with offences including conspiracy to steal motor vehicles, fraud and burglary following an investigation into the theft of 17 SUVs across Hastings and Rother.
Fourteen of the vehicles have been recovered and returned to their owners.
The crackdown also uncovered stolen commercial and specialist vehicles, including a forklift truck, caravan, horsebox and an excavator which police say was about to be exported.
Assistant Chief Constable Sarah Grahame, the NPCC’s lead for vehicle crime, said: ‘Vehicle crime is not a low-level crime with minimal consequences. It affects people and communities every day and, as the range of arrests during this operation demonstrates, is often linked to other serious offending.
‘Police recorded vehicle offences decreased by 11 per cent in the year ending March 2026, but we cannot be complacent.
‘People’s daily lives and livelihoods are being affected while criminals profit from their actions, and that simply cannot be tolerated.’
Chief Superintendent Owain Llewellyn, head of Opal, policing’s national intelligence unit for serious organised acquisitive crime, warned that criminals were becoming increasingly sophisticated.
He said: ‘Criminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated and constantly adapting their methods in an attempt to stay one step ahead of the law, as some of the equipment recovered during this operation demonstrates.’
He added that police were working closely with vehicle manufacturers to identify ways of making cars harder to steal.
Policing minister Sarah Jones welcomed the results, saying vehicle theft was down 5% nationally and pointing to new laws banning electronic devices used to steal vehicles.
She said: ‘Vehicle theft can turn lives upside down overnight. Criminals are driving away with people’s livelihoods, leaving them unable to work or take their kids to school in the morning.
‘That’s why we have backed policing with additional funding to support this latest round of intensive action. I commend the officers and teams involved for their outstanding work disrupting criminal networks, recovering stolen property, and taking criminals off our streets.
‘Vehicle theft is down 5% across the country, and we’ve introduced new laws that ban electronic tools used to steal vehicles.’