Humberside Police: Taking down organised crime gangs

Operation Galaxy – message from Humberside Police

With links to drug dealing, the exploitation of children and vulnerable adults, organised robberies and break-ins, as well as violent attacks on rival gang members, there’s little wonder that members of Organised Crime Groups (OCG) are among the primary targets of our Operation Galaxy teams.

These OCGs plan, co-ordinate and make decisions together to create a slick operation with defined roles from top to bottom, very much like you would have at a legitimate company.

Building up a picture of these complex networks in order to identify and target those in charge is no easy feat – but that’s where the expert teams in our Serious and Organised Crime Unit or local Organised Crime teams come in.

Today, as we continue to Lift The Police Tape on the work of our teams, Detective Chief Inspector Iain Pottage is here to tell you more.

Here in Humberside Police, proactively targeting and removing Organised Crime Groups from our communities is everyone’s business.

Officers and staff from every rank and command in the force are constantly on the look-out for information that could assist us in doing this – and making this area a hostile environment for all criminals.

As part of this, our Operation Galaxy team work directly alongside our Serious and Organised Crime Unit and Organised Crime teams on a regular basis, to plan and undertake proactive operations to shut these groups down.

DCI Pottage said: “OCGs have a corrosive effect on the communities they are in and they remain one of the force’s – and Operation Galaxy’s – priority areas, with teams across the force working hard to take them down.

“While ever OCGs have the motive they will continue to offend, which is why we continuously pursue them to try and disrupt and dismantle them at any opportunity that we can.”

Each OCG is allocated an Inspector to manage them, working on the case and establishing the best way for the team to tackle them. 

And they have to be careful to ensure they only strike when they have enough evidence to make the biggest impact and take down everyone in the group, including the people leading the operations.

DCI Pottage added: “Sometimes, it can take months, or even years, for us to fully dismantle an OCG.

“But that doesn’t mean that we don’t take action against them before then to disrupt their activities, deprive them of cash or drugs and generally make it hard for them to operate.

“We understand how much pain these groups can cause at different levels and this is why we are cracking down on them through Operation Galaxy.

“This can include high visibility patrols in areas where we know OCGs are based, intelligence gathering, warrants, covert operations, carrying out stop and searches of individuals linked to the groups and proactive operations.

“We are also working to increase resilience in our force area through education and going into schools to talk to young people about the negative impact OCGs can have on their own lives, as well as those within their communities and supporting projects through our Serious Organised Crime community coordinator which divert people from entering OCGs.”https://www.youtube.com/embed/DV_EbjNklec?enablejsapi=1

DCI Pottage added: “It’s not just our teams within the force working on taking down OCGs as we also work with our partners, including local authorities, charities, prisons and probation and HMRC among others.

“We have regular meetings with all of them which help us to figure out how to better disrupt these groups.

“We also need the support of our communities, so if you think you may have information about any activity linked to organised crime, please come forward and tell us.

“You may not see immediate results in some cases, but this may be because your information plays an integral part in a larger ongoing investigation.

“What I can promise is that your information is never ignored and we will act on it when the time is right.

““You can pass information onto us by calling our non-emergency 101 number, or if you would prefer to stay completely anonymous, through contacting independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.”