Dodgy barbers, vape stores and mini-marts will be shut down in a £30million crackdown led by 'Britain's FBI'.A new High Street Organised Crime Unit, announced by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, will target money laundering, illegal working and tax evasion.The scheme will aim to carry out thousands of raids, seize cash and close down criminal operators, with the National Crime Agency estimating crooked high street businesses are responsible for laundering £1billion a year.It comes amid claims corner shops are taking payments for small boat traffickers.Smugglers have been collecting money for illegal Channel crossings using a network of UK-registered businesses, a BBC investigation found.Staff at a shop in Woolwich, south-east London, were secretly filmed telling an undercover researcher that nearly £3,000 in cash could be deposited with them and transferred to a smuggler in France.The trafficker also provided undercover reporters, who were posing as migrants, with bank account details of two UK-registered companies – a wholesaler in Newcastle upon Tyne and a Cambridgeshire car wash - which he said could take electronic transfers for migrant crossings.The Home Office's new unit will bring together the NCA, police, the taxman and trading standards. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the new £30million operation would crack down on criminal gangs which 'exploit our high streets to launder their dirty money' and 'undercut honest businesses' Dodgy high street businesses have been taking payments for illegal Channel crossings from the Continent, a BBC investigation found
Dodgy high street businesses face shutdown in new £30million crackdown
A new High Street Organised Crime Unit, announced by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, will target money laundering, illegal working and tax evasion.







