A young child was among 12 shoppers left stranded in a Counterfeit Street store after a worker ran off with the key. The stores are 'structurally unsafe and littered with rat and urine faeces', police warned.
At around 2pm on Friday, January 6, police say they were alerted to a counterfeit store on Moulton Street, Strangeways, where the shopkeepers had 'locked members of the public in against their will whilst they ran off with the keys in an attempt to escape'. Officers detained one of the spotters who had alerted the shopkeepers of the police presence and located a key fob to the shop.
The shutters had deliberately been disabled from the inside and there was no way of getting in or out easily, according to Greater Manchester Police. Officers had to break down the shutters to get inside, where they found 12 people locked in, including a young child.
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Three men have been arrested on suspicion of false imprisonment and trademark offences. They remain in police custody for questioning.
The arrests come amid Operation Vulcan, the force's attempt to disrupt and dismantle 'Counterfeit Street' - a small section in and around Bury New Road just outside the city centre. Along with the illegal trading of knock-off designer handbags, perfumes and clothes, at least 33 organised crime gangs are linked to the area with money laundering, firearms, drugs, modern-day slavery and illegal immigration rife. The counterfeit trade is thought to cost the UK economy £8bn a year, with up to half of it coming from this square mile around Strangeways prison.
Shoppers being left trapped inside stores along the row have become commonplace - happening twice in the last few weeks alone. Back in December, shoppers heard shouting for help after being locked inside a premises on 'Counterfeit Street' were rescued by police. A group of 30 people were found 'huddled' inside.
And only a matter of days ago, police released more than 20 people from inside a Counterfeit Street shop after a young boy told them his mum was trapped inside.
Inspector Andrew Torkington, one of Operation Vulcan’s specialist officers, said: “This was a dangerous and unsettling situation we encountered. The owners of the shop had disabled the shutters and locked the customers inside, all in an effort to stop police finding and seizing their counterfeit items. Had we not been able to get inside the shop, who knows how long the members of the public would have been stuck inside before the owners braved returning.
“Counterfeiting is a crime, which is why the shopkeepers are so desperate to avoid police detection. These clothes are of dubious, often dangerous quality, manufactured in filthy and appalling conditions. They’re being shipped to the UK where fake logos are applied by staff who are forced to work in exploitative conditions.
"They are then sold across shops in Cheetham Hill, which, as we’ve mentioned before, these buildings are structurally unsafe, littered with rat urine and faeces, and manned by shopkeepers who have weapons stashed.
“Operation Vulcan has been set up to disrupt every level of criminality in this area. We are less than one week into 2023 and this is the second largescale store that we will empty, close, and prosecute those responsible. Cheetham Hill and Strangeways will no longer be synonymous with counterfeit goods."
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