The UK authorities have set up a High Street Organised Crime Unit. It brings bring together central government departments, police including the National Crime Agency (NCA), and Trading Standards. It’s to go after barber shops, vape stores, mini-marts and sweet shops linked to organised crime, which were featured in the May 2026 edition of Professional Security Magazine (‘Illicit shops are threats to retail’).
Lord Bichard, Chair, National Trading Standards, said: “Organised high street crime, including the illegal sale of tobacco and counterfeit goods, is damaging communities across the country. These criminal networks undercut honest businesses, draw money away from local economies and expose consumers to unregulated and potentially unsafe products. They are also often linked to wider offending, including money laundering, exploitation, and violence.
“The creation of a new High Street Organised Crime Unit will help drive a co-ordinated national response while strengthening local enforcement capability through additional support and funding for Trading Standards, police and partner agencies on the ground, who will work together to disrupt organised offenders, protect the public and support honest businesses that play by the rules.”
May’s Professional Security Magazine featured Salford Trading Standards and other speakers at a Birmingham conference by the trade body the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS), where members complained of being under-cut. ACS Chief Executive Ed Woodall said: “Local shops tell us that rogue traders on high streets are causing massive damage to their businesses and the wider community, so we strongly welcome this Government action to back responsible retailers and crack down on the organised crime gangs that are fuelling the illicit trade.”
CTSI
As a sign of how far such illegality has advanced, the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) while welcoming the Unit urged the Home Office to rapidly review enforcement powers, resources, and measures to keep Trading Standards officers safe (because in a 2025 CTSI survey, almostย three-quarters of Trading Standards people said that they had been physically assaulted, threatened with violence, or experienced intimidatory behaviour. Besides, near all reported that they were aware of suspected OCGs operating out of retail premises on their local high streets). John Herriman, Chief Executive of the CTSI, said: โThe proliferation of so called โdodgy shopsโ puts consumers at significant risk and undermines the legitimate businesses who drive economic growth across the UK. The new Unit will bring a much-needed focus to help clamp down on a blight on our high streets and communities.
โCTSIโs recent report on organised criminality on UK high streets highlighted some of the many challenges Trading Standards face and set out a series of recommendations to empower enforcement agencies to clamp down on the issue. There is an urgent need for the Home Office to rapidly review enforcement powers, resources, and measures to protect Trading Standards officers, so agencies can more effectively disrupt organised criminality.โ
Hot spots
The CTSI has also produced a UK ‘hot spots’ map for organised crime on its high streets. The more populated cities and towns are hot spots such as London and Birmingham; but also less obvious locations โ such as in Great Yarmouth, which may be linked to the tourist trade. The data also suggests the presence of two โcorridors of crimeโ: one horizontal from Liverpool on the west coast to Hull and Grimsby on the east coast and the second a collection of coastal places across Dorset, Hampshire, and Sussex such as Brighton and Southampton.
Labour
The Labour Government meanwhile points to its planned police reform, as set out in this month’s King’s Speech, that will include the setting up of a National Police Service bringing together the National Crime Agency, Counter Terrorism Policing, and regional organised crime units to respond to serious and organised crime. Police in London and elsewhere have been running Operation Machinize, against economic crime on our high streets.
NCA background
The NCA estimates that ยฃ12 billion of criminal cash is generated in the UK each year, which is typically smuggled out of the country or integrated into the legitimate financial system using a variety of laundering techniques. Criminals can conceal the origins of illicit cash in cash-intensive businesses such as barbershops, vape shops, nail bars, American-themed sweet shops and car washes.
