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How gang 'vanished' after fashion raids
Justin Davenport, Crime Correspondent11.12.07
The "smash-and-grab" gangs targeting London's designer stores have been selling the stolen goods on eBay, the Evening Standard can reveal.
Sought-after items such as £1,200 handbags and designer clothes have also been sold to bona-fide stores - which knew the items they were buying had been stolen.
Dramatic new details of how the motorcycle raiders operate can be revealed today as police launched a second wave of arrests against the crime gangs.
A 17-year-old, alleged to be one of the ringleaders, has been seized in Islington while police also recovered stolen Ralph Lauren clothing in a search at an address in Hackney.
Police sources have told the Standard that the raids - more than 32 so far this year - were carried out by teams of organised robbers.
They were using a method of operation one detective likened to something out of the film Mission Impossible.
The teams of raiders would load stolen motorcycles - with their licence plates removed - into the back of an anonymous-looking van and drive into central London. The gang would have already reconnoitred the store they planned to attack and, once they were close to the premises, the motorcycle riders, carrying pillion passengers armed with sledgehammers, would drive out of the back of the van and race to the target. With lightning speed the bike passengers smashed the front windows of the stores and then grabbed as much property as they could carry.
They would then speed back to the van, load the bikes on board and calmly drive away.
The tactics meant that police would be unable to identify the gangs as they carried out the raids - and were then unable to track their getaway using CCTV cameras in central London.
One detective said: "It was as if they just disappeared."
At the height of their activity the gangs were carrying out almost weekly raids on London's most prestigious jewellers and fashion stores.
In the past few years the gang of robbers have escaped with millions of pounds worth of watches, gems, designer clothes and camera equipment from stores in Mayfair, Knightsbridge and Chelsea.
Detectives from the Westminster Crime Squad made the first arrests in a covert operation against the gangs last week. There were further dawn raids yesterday in which the alleged teenage ringleader - who had just turned 17 - was held at his home in Islington, less than a mile from the shops and restaurants of Upper Street.
The arrested teenager - who lived with his mother and brother - was questioned about a series of raids in central London over the past six months including one at a Mulberry shop in the West End and another at a Jessops' camera store.
Detective Chief Inspector Mark Roycroft, who has been leading the inquiry into the robberies, said: "This latest police action is part of a continued operation against smash-and-grab gangs in the West End."
He added: "These are relatively sophisticated gangs. We are trying to break these groups before they step up a level of criminality to commit more serious crimes such as cash-in-transit robberies."
Three people have been charged and appeared in court in connection with the smash-and-grab raids after last week's arrests.
