The government has announced a £20m crackdown on “dodgy” retail outlets such as vape stores and sweet shops, accusing organised crime gangs of using them to launder an estimated £1bn of dirty money each year. A new specialist cell within the National Crime Agency (NCA) will coordinate investigations and raids targeting businesses suspected of acting as fronts for gangsters, the Home Office said.
The NCA cell will receive the £20m funding, with 75 additional officers recruited to bolster work alongside police forces in Greater Manchester, the West Midlands, Kent and Essex. The cash comes from a £30m pot set aside by the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, in last November’s budget. In a separate move, trading standards departments in at-risk local authorities will receive an extra £6m to strengthen their response to sham businesses, and officers will receive new training to help them identify suspicious premises, improve compliance and boost enforcement.
How criminal gangs exploit high street shops
The NCA estimates that at least £12bn of criminal cash is generated in the UK each year, with roughly £1bn laundered through high street businesses such as mini-marts, barber shops, vape stores and sweet shops. Cash-intensive retailers are particularly vulnerable because they have low operating costs and high cash flow, making them easy to infiltrate for money laundering, tax fraud and illegal work. Some businesses are also linked to the sale of fake goods, illegal drug supply and, in the worst cases, modern slavery and child sexual exploitation.
A Trading Standards report, “Hidden In Plain Sight“, found the problem is widespread. As many as half of convenience stores and vape retailers in some areas are suspected of having links with organised crime, while up to a third of American candy stores and one in four takeaways in specific areas are believed to be fronts for criminal activity. The report also revealed that 97% of trading standards officers were aware of suspected organised crime groups operating from retail premises, and 99% said they had seen an increase in cash-intensive businesses since 2020. Meanwhile, 72% of trading standards professionals reported experiencing intimidation or threats of violence while carrying out their duties — a figure that underscores the risks faced by enforcement staff as budgets have been cut by up to 50% over the past decade.
The broader scale of money laundering affecting the UK — including through corporate structures and financial institutions — is estimated by the NCA to be in the hundreds of billions of pounds annually. The government has now established a new High Street Organised Crime Unit, chaired by the security minister, Dan Jarvis, which will bring together government departments, policing partners and trading standards to coordinate the response. The unit will also examine current powers, including closure orders, and consider extending their duration.
Previous enforcement and wider context
The announcement builds on existing operations. Under Operation Machinize 2, which targeted cash-intensive businesses in the so-called “grey economy”, the NCA and every UK police force visited or raided 2,734 premises over the course of October. That led to 924 arrests and the seizure of more than £10.7m in suspected illegal proceeds, as well as 111,000 illegal vapes, 70kg of cannabis, 4.5m illegal cigarettes and 622kg of illegal tobacco. The NCA had established Operation Machinize after concluding that the criminal exploitation of high street businesses was beyond the capacity of any single organisation.
The crackdown comes amid heightened political focus on the condition of British high streets. Labour vowed in its general election manifesto to clamp down on “dodgy” outlets such as US candy shops, while Reform UK and the Conservatives have blamed the party for a decline in high streets as household brands collapse and shoplifting rises. Research suggests public concern is widespread: a YouGov poll found that improving shopping precincts was the third most important local issue for voters, behind good healthcare and reducing crime. Reform UK supporters were more likely than others to say their area had significantly declined, a feeling researchers described as a “deep sense of place-based resentment” towards Westminster. Separate polling by Ipsos showed that 84% of Britons are concerned about high prices in shops and 79% worry about the general decline of high streets.
Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, said: “Criminal gangs have exploited our high streets to launder their dirty money and undercut honest businesses. We are hitting back with a nationwide crackdown to shut these fronts down, seize dirty cash and drive organised crime off our high streets and put bosses behind bars.”
