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PICKPOCKETS AGED JUST SIX
DETECTIVES say they have cracked a Fagin-style gang of pickpockets believed to be plaguing West End shoppers.
Officers made 19 arrests in Slough yesterday (Thursday), freeing 11 children including a one-year-old baby.
The children are believed to have been snatched in Romania and trafficked into this country to work as thieves and to aid in distraction crimes.
Marylebone Superintendent Bernie Gravett, heading the operation code-named Gulf, said children as young as six were being schooled in the art of crime in Slough safe-houses.
He said: “There were children as young as six being taught about pickpocketing. It’s like a latter-day Fagin from Oliver Twist.”
He added: “One of the most serious crimes being perpetrated in this country right now is the trafficking of young children.”
He said many more Romanian criminal gangs were based in London.
Operation Gulf was exclusively revealed in the West End Extra back in August when Supt Gravett returned from a fact-finding mission in Bucharest.
Officers acquired a list of more than 1,000 children believed to have been trafficked into Westminster to fund organised crime.
The gang stole the babies to distract shoppers at cashpoints. Children were also dispatched to pickpocket shoppers, a crime known to police as “dipping”.
Westminster borough commander Steve Allen hailed yesterday’s raids as a warning to crime bosses.
He said: “While many of these crimes committed appear to be low level, we have evidence that organised crime networks are exploiting and driving the most vulnerable members of their own community. With promises of a financial return, some poor families surrender their children who are subsequently forced to commit crime. This operation is about us targeting those behind organised crime networks on the streets of London, and the criminal exploitation of children. We continue to work closely with Romanian authorities.” |
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