Supercars seized in raids

7:34am Thursday 3rd July 2008

Police investigating a money laundering ring staged a series of dawn raids across the district which saw officers impound high-performance cars worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

One of the targets of the operation was Oakleigh View, a quiet residential area on the outskirts of Baildon, where officers seized three luxury cars, one of them a Ferrari.

The raids were part of a larger operation by Bradford South CID on premises across the district which focused on suspected money laundering and fraud in Bradford, Baildon and Wakefield.

The detectives, who swooped in the early hours of yesterday morning on the Baildon address, seized three luxury cars, a Ferrari, a Porsche Boxster and a Land Rover with an estimated joint value of £200,000.

In total, police estimate that the raids will have garnered over £2 million worth of assets in a wide-reaching operation code-named ‘Operation Soprano’.

The five suspects apprehended yesterday included three men - two, aged 23 and 43, from Bradford and a third, aged 26, from Baildon. Two women, one aged 28, from Wakefield and a 25-year-old from Bradford, were also arrested.

All five remained in police custody last night.

One resident of the estate, who asked not to be named, said: “I was in bed at around 6.30am when I heard doors slamming and a lot of noise. There was a lot of police activity a van and several unmarked cars. Everyone has been talking about it. We’ve lived here for 14 years and we have never seen anything quite like this before.

“We didn’t know the pair whose house was raided. They had been on the estate for about 18 months but kept themselves to themselves. They always entered through the side door, an Asian man and a young blonde white woman.

“We always wondered why they needed three cars when there were only two of them. I think they only got the Ferrari a couple of weeks ago, they had an older model before that. They put the house on the market about a fortnight ago.

“The man wasn’t flashy in the way he dressed, he didn’t wear a lot of jewellery or anything he always looked pretty normal, apart from the cars of course.”

Detective Inspector Noel Devine, from Bradford South CID, who led Operation Soprano, believed to be a reference to the popular television show of the same name, said: “West Yorkshire Police are committed to removing the negative role models from the communities who are seen living a life of luxury at the expense of victims of crime. We want to show the people that crime does not pay.”

These latest arrests are the latest in a string of high-profile operations carried out by West Yorkshire Police.

In the last month in Bradford alone, criminals have been charged or convicted while having assets totalling over £3 million, which detectives are now endeavouring to recover.

These include 44-year-old Donald Foster, who was sentenced to six years for supplying Class A drugs and money laundering.

Detective Inspector Noel Devine added: “These arrests should act as a warning to other criminals that if they’re living off the proceeds of crime, they will be investigated, not only for their original offences, but where the profits of their crimes have gone.”

If you know someone who is committing crime and living off the proceeds, please contact us at Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 and we will investigate.”

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