David de Gea
18.02.2023 - 21:33 / manchestereveningnews.co.uk
Over 50 years, the Strangeways district has evolved as the place to go for fake designer gear. Hooky clothing, counterfeit toys and illicit prescription drugs are all brazenly sold.
Periodically there have been raids. Within a week or so the goods seized have been replaced via a nationwide network of organised crime groups. The cat and mouse approach over decades by police, trading standards, and agencies employed by top brands, merely tinkered with the status quo.
But since November there has been a sea change in tactics. The results have been astonishing after relentless raids on premises, stop-checks of cars, and an outbreak of gangs stealing fake goods from each other.
Does this mark the beginning of the end for Counterfeit Street?
The aim is to ultimately see the end of criminality on Bury New Road. The properties which house businesses flogging fake merchandise will be closed, and then flattened. The district is currently a shabby gateway to the city centre tarnished by industrial scale criminality.
Operation Vulcan is GMP's answer to take down for good activities which have made one edge of the city centre infamous - and it has no time limit. In late October, Detective Supt Neil Blackwood, who is heading Operation Vulcan, told the M.E.N: "This comes directly from our Chief Constable. He has described Cheetham Hill as a place that is criminally hostile and he is not prepared to have that in his force area.
"Counterfeiting has been around for a very long time but the criminality has shifted into prescription drugs; people being exploited sexually and for their labour, and illegal immigration - a microcosm of criminality."
Asked if Operation Vulcan ultimately includes demolition of the buildings used as warrens for
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