A MAJOR new initiative targeting organised criminals who are in the UK illegally has been launched.

Run by the Metropolitan Police and the Immigration Service, Operation Maxim will be moving in on criminals involved in a range of illegal activities including kidnapping, identity theft, drugs trafficking, human trafficking and money laundering.

The first arrests were made across the capital last Thursday, with two people arrested in connection with identity fraud and a number of others being interviewed.

Detectives are examining a quantity of passport applications and birth certificates recovered from one of the addresses.

Assistant commissioner Tarique Ghaffur, head of the Met's specialist crime directorate, said: "Intelligence shows us that London is the hub for illegal entrants intent on committing serious and organised crime, and Operation Maxim will help dismantle and disrupt those networks.

"These criminal organisations not only traffic illegal entrants into the UK often into lives of exploitation but also bring increased violence, guns and dangerous drugs into their own communities. Operation Maxim will call time on those criminals."

The operation has led to the creation of a new joint intelligence cell between police and immigration.

Officers from both services will work side by side to seek out criminals who are in the UK illegally, and to carry out proactive operations against them.

They will first be dealt with using the criminal justice system but where it is not possible to gather sufficient evidence of crimes, they will be handed over to the immigration service.

April 29, 2003 12:00