Met targets top thieves
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by Amanda Bradbury • A single gang of truck thieves is responsible for most of the truck thefts in London, Essex and Kent.
The biggest ever truck theft investigation by the Metropolitan Police has revealed that the gang was behind 65% of all truck thefts in the region.
Operation Sallow, organised by the Stolen Motor Vehicle Investigation Squad, has so far uncovered evidence of the theft of 174 LGVs — and the final tally is expected to reach 300 trucks.
The multi-million-pound value of this number of vehicles ranks Operation Sallow alongside major drug investigations say officers.
To date 20 people have been arrested and seven men have been charged: more arrests are planned, say police. If convicted, they could face sentences of around nine years.
They will not speculate on the number of people involved in the ring, but it is described as a national organisation which has been taking vehicles from as far away as Carlisle and Plymouth.
Six men were charged with the theft of two vehicles following a raid in East London in August (CM19-25 August).
A seventh man was arrested on 8 August in Bedfordshire and charged with the theft of a Foden tipper.