Over 50 years, the Strangeways district has evolved as the place to go for fake designer gear. Hooky clothing, counterfeit toys and illicit prescription drugs are all brazenly sold.
Periodically there have been raids. Within a week or so the goods seized have been replaced via a nationwide network of organised crime groups. The cat and mouse approach over decades by police, trading standards, and agencies employed by top brands, merely tinkered with the status quo.
But since November there has been a sea change in tactics. The results have been astonishing after relentless raids on premises, stop-checks of cars, and an outbreak of gangs stealing fake goods from each other.
Does this mark the beginning of the end for Counterfeit Street?
A shabby gateway to the city centre
The aim is to ultimately see the end of criminality on Bury New Road. The properties which house businesses flogging fake merchandise will be closed, and then flattened. The district is currently a shabby gateway to the city centre tarnished by industrial scale criminality.
Operation Vulcan is GMP's answer to take down for good activities which have made one edge of the city centre infamous - and it has no time limit. In late October, Detective Supt Neil Blackwood, who is heading Operation Vulcan, told the M.E.N: "This comes directly from our Chief Constable. He has described Cheetham Hill as a place that is criminally hostile and he is not prepared to have that in his force area.
"Counterfeiting has been around for a very long time but the criminality has shifted into prescription drugs; people being exploited sexually and for their labour, and illegal immigration - a microcosm of criminality."
Asked if Operation Vulcan ultimately includes demolition of the buildings used as warrens for counterfeit sales, he said: "Yes. We are going for closure orders, with Manchester City Council, then compulsory purchase orders."
Is the crackdown effective?
Now figures reveal the how the radical attempt to deliver a permanent solution is working. The last three months have seen 72 counterfeit shops shut down, 41 warrants executed, £258,000 recovered from the pockets of criminals, 76 arrests made, 35 vehicles and 257 tonnes of counterfeit goods with estimated value of £40m seized.
An estimated 1.2m tablets of class C drugs were also recovered.
GMP said in a statement: "There is no evidence of these businesses moving to other locations, but Operation Vulcan is not confined to the Cheetham Hill and Strangeways area - GMP will pursue them wherever they go, and whilst we anticipate some may move online - there is a plan in place to address this."
Manchester city council officers have met landlords to clamp down on privately owned properties being leased out to illegal enterprises. One particular property on Great Ducie Street, a large building comprising over 13 separate shops, was targeted. Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service served the landlord a prohibition notice after deeming it so structurally unsafe, and it remains closed.
GMP have said 33 organised crime gangs from across the UK have links to the Strangeways and Cheetham Hill districts. The force said: "We are encountering OCGs from various parts of the country and quickly understanding the supply networks that they exploit. Arrests have been made of people from London, Stafford, Cheshire, and Glasgow. The organised nature of the supply of drugs, clothes, and people is clear and we are disrupting this at every level of the OCGs that think Cheetham Hill is a place they can operate."
The quest to find the 'Mr Bigs'
A key aim of Vulcan is to make sure police aren't just prosecuting the shop staff. They want to find the 'Mr Bigs' at the top of the chain, who carry clout and influence. "The way that Operation Vulcan is conceived, staffed and now deployed means that all layers of criminality will be targeted. The obvious criminality is being cleared by way of enforcement but we are already impacting on the mid and upper layers via the collaborative efforts of the 65 partners working on Op Vulcan. Intelligence is continuously being gathered to ensure the major criminals will be pursued and prevented from returning," said the force.
"Operation Vulcan will stay in the area as long as it is needed and will be there to prevent the criminality returning so the community (with our partners) can develop and build over the coming years."
Detective Supt Blackwood said: “While there is still much to accomplish, a combination of relentless law enforcement by Vulcan officers and unwavering support from dedicated partners, is noticeably weakening the grip organised crime groups have on the area and we are already seeing a discernible difference.
"At its heart, Operation Vulcan is a partnership effort, and while enforcement is an important part, real, sustainable change would not be possible without your help. The future phases of Operation Vulcan will see the investigation deepen as we begin to target those higher up the chain. As we know all too well, counterfeiting is just the tip of the iceberg."
How the rest of the area is changing
The district is seeing the beginnings of change too. The opening of a new £93m campus for Manchester College on the site of the old Boddington's Brewery within 200 yards of the stores selling counterfeit goods, plus a Travelodge hotel, which is even closer, have also been a catalyst for action.
Vulcan has fuelled a major question - what happens to Strangeways Prison - a crumbling part-Victorian building next to the fake goods shops. As the M.E.N. reported in December, Manchester City Council has contacted the Government to call for Strangeways prison to be closed and relocated out of Manchester.
The council argues the prison - HMP Manchester - is 'coming to the end of its natural lifespan' and is not suitable for the 'significant remodelling and expansion' needed to bring it up to modern-day standards.
Vulcan is playing a significant part in the re-shaping of the district. But forcing out the counterfeit industry is just one element. As Detective Supt Blackwood told the M.E.N. in October: "We have quite an established red-light district at the back of Strangeways, as improvements around Piccadilly have shifted the red light area. We are coming across people of Eastern European, and Asian heritage who are saying 'I don't want to be here doing this'. In Cheetham Hill last year there were 32 referrals to the National Referral Mechanism. We are talking about street workers, some of whom have been here quite a long time.
"The area is quite synonymous with cannabis farming - Albanian gangs who have come in, taken vacant properties, and converted them into cannabis farms. They will have a diverse range of people working in them, most of whom are forced to do so - Vietnamese being amongst them. We are going into properties and finding people who are saying 'I am not allowed out of here. I grow this, and that is my debt being paid off'. We are talking £10,000 per person."
With so many complex problems in the area, can police well and truly change the face of the district for good?
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