A POLICE TEAM has retrieved £1.6million in cash and stolen goods in a scheme that tackle criminal and drug gangs.
The money has been seized by a team of two financial investigators, who have been hired from the banking sector and an intelligence analyst who use high-tech anti-fraud methods used in the world of banking.
The work to retrieve money under the Proceeds of Crime Act has been dubbed ‘Operation Pound’ by police bosses, as they seek to hit criminals where it hurts most, in the pocket.
The team is paid for using Police and Crime Commissioner funding and has already recovered enough money to pay the wages of its staff.
This is all part of a wider Police and Crime Commissioner plan to tackle drug dealing and reduce the harm caused by it.
Across the country budgets for services to tackle drug use have been slashed over the last decade.
The West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner, Simon Foster, said: “It would seem apt that those who have profited from selling drugs are now funding the very team that is taking that money back off them.
“Drugs have a terrible impact on the lives of so many people and so I’m delighted to see the profits of those at the top of the criminal underworld taken from them.”
