Chelmsford: Eleven arrested on suspicion of immigration offences

Eleven people have been arrested on suspicion of immigration offences on Tuesday, 26 March, as part of an operation which covered Chelmsford and Maldon.

The operation, which has consisted of months of work by our Serious Organised Crime Unit was in partnership with Chelmsford City Council and Maldon District Council Community Safety Partnerships and followed intelligence that particular sites in Chelmsford and Maldon were being used for criminal activity including immigration crime.

Visits were planned at seven premises and eleven people were arrested on suspicion of immigration remaining in the UK beyond time limit.

The arrests took place in locations including car washes, garages and a restaurant. They were facilitated by Chelmsford Community Policing Team, Maldon Town Team, Intelligence officers, dog unit, Modern Slavery Human trafficking team, our Criminal Investigation Department and our Operational Support Group. In addition to this, our officers worked with Home Office Immigration and Border Force.

Two arrested have since been released on bail and further arrests have been passed to immigration.

Detective Superintendent Ian Dyball said “We have continued work closely with our partners, to build a picture around potential offences at these locations.

“The information we collate is a combination of work from our intelligence teams and reports around suspicious activity that we received from the public. Without these reports, we wouldn’t be able to act in order to keep vulnerable people safe and tackle serious organised crime.”

“Enquiries surrounding yesterdays’ arrests remain ongoing.”