Three men have been arrested in dawn raids following a BBC News investigation into organized crime gangs operating on the High Street.
Two Iranian men, aged 32 and 28, were arrested after immigration officers targeted several addresses in Birmingham and the West Midlands. The Home Office said the third man was a 43-year-old naturalized British citizen.
He has been detained on suspicion of facilitating illegal entry into the UK and facilitating illegal activities.
Earlier this month, the BBC found that more than 100 mini-marts, car washes and barber shops operating from Dundee to South Devon were linked to a crime network.
Andy Radcliffe, assistant director of immigration enforcement, is leading the investigation into the BBC’s allegations involving HMRC, the National Crime Agency, Companies House, police forces and Trading Standards.
An investigation was launched “immediately” after the BBC report, he said, with teams building “an intelligence picture within a matter of weeks”.
Mr Radcliffe said it was the beginning of an investigation “to try to tackle the widespread abuse”.
“We’re taking it very seriously…people can go to jail for this, we can have their property taken away, so we’re taking it very seriously,” he said.
Earlier this month, the BBC revealed evidence of a criminal network organizing and profiting from undocumented workers working in barber shops, mini-marts and carwashes across the UK.
The Home Office launched an “urgent investigation” involving police forces across the country after the BBC revealed more than 100 businesses linked to a suspected Kurdish crime network enabled migrants to work illegally in high street mini-marts and sell counterfeit cigarettes.
A BBC investigation found an asylum seeker who says his claim was rejected was trying to sell a mini-mart for £18,000 in cash.
Undercover journalists also exposed a man at the center of an immigration crime ring who said he had “clients in every city” and could wipe out illegal working fines of up to £60,000.
The Government has acknowledged that lax regulation of the UK labor market is acting as an attraction factor for people entering the UK illegally.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said these types of criminal networks “encourage people to come here illegally”.
Asked by the BBC last week whether the government had lost control of the high streets to Kurdish organized crime gangs, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: “What your correspondents were able to investigate and show is absolutely proof of why our system is broken.
“That is why this government is cracking down on illegal activities.”
In the Budget the Chancellor announced funding for 45 new Trading Standards officers.
Rachel Reeves said the government would launch “additional enforcement activity on the high streets, focusing on illicit tobacco and vaping products”, which will include deploying 350 newly-recruited criminal investigators from the Fraud Investigation Team.
Immigration and Citizenship Minister Mike Tapp praised the BBC’s investigation and its reporting, saying it “really shows the value of the BBC”.
At government level, he said: “We said we take it seriously and we have taken it seriously and we are.
“I hate what these hairdressers, nail bars and shady vape shops are doing to many of our high streets, not only to the look and feel of them, but also to the actual businesses that are being undercut. So it’s really important that we continue to work hard to tackle this.”
Additional reporting by Phil Edwards
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