Luton town centre operation seizes £30,000 in cash

More than £30,000 cash has been seized and a man arrested by officers on a new operation targeting crime in Luton town centre.

Bedfordshire Police community officers found the cash in the back of a car stopped by police yesterday (Thursday).

A man in his 40s from Luton was subsequently arrested on suspicion of money laundering.

It follows further work to disrupt organised crime through Operation Metal, which is being led by the Luton community policing team.

On Wednesday last week (26 July) officers out in the town centre were alerted to someone matching the description of a robbery suspect.

He was stop and searched and officers found he had a large combat knife as well as dozens of bags of suspected Class A drugs, and was subsequently arrested.

Later in the week community officers who were investigating a suspected county drugs line visited an address in Elizabeth Street and saw someone throw items away as they left the location.

Officers detained a man nearby and recovered the thrown items, which turned out to be Class A drugs worth thousands of pounds.

The man was subsequently arrested on suspicion of drugs supply offences.

Chief Inspector Alex House, who is leading Operation Metal, said: "Tackling organised crime is everyone's business – which includes all of us in policing, no matter what our role is.

"We have put plans in place to sustainably address crime ranging from drug dealing and anti-social behaviour through to violence against women and girls.

"We want Luton town centre to be a safe place for people to live, work and visit. These early results are really encouraging and send a strong message that we are out pursuing behaviour which undoubtedly damages our communities."