Missing children found in Cheetham Hill counterfeit street crackdown

Police raided the home of one of the shop owners and found more items and £6,000 in cash

Children who have gone missing from asylum seeker hotels in England have been found working in Manchester's "counterfeit street", police have said.

The chief constable of Greater Manchester Police said a handful of missing children had been found working for Cheetham Hill crime gangs.

Stephen Watson said his force had shut down 79 shops and seized 254 tonnes of fake goods over the last three months.

"We have a nexus of organised crime in that part of the city," he added.

An operation began last year to target criminal gangs who deal drugs, run counterfeit shops and control prostitution on Bury New Road near HMP Manchester which has been nicknamed "counterfeit street".

Mr Watson said Cheetham Hill had attracted hundreds of illegal immigrants both adults and children.

The children found by the force's Operation Vulcan are now under the radar of social services.

Mr Watson explained: "The first our partners in social services hear about these children is when we present them to social services.

"It is egregious and is an affront to all of us which is why we are so challenging with Vulcan."

Police have carried out a series of raids over the last three months across the Cheetham Hill area of Manchester

Mr Watson said every case of a missing child was concerning, adding: "It is a manifestation of the great problem facing our country.

"What we have seen in Cheetham Hill is some of these adults and children have been taken in by organised immigration crime and their labour has been exploited for various reasons."

He added: "Our Operation Vulcan has a very rigorous, very assertive approach to clamping down on something which frankly has been a problem in Cheetham Hill for many years."

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The chief constable said counterfeit goods were a front for serious and organised crime.

He said: "We have a nexus of organised crime groups working out of that part of our city and they are drawing in and exploiting vulnerable people.

"They think they are here of their own volition, but they might as well be kidnapped because by the time they arrive very often they are in debt bondage to people who have arranged to traffic them and they are then held to pay off a debt."