Operation Venture in Rochdale: Uncovering hides, stopping fake taxis and busting drug dealers

Greater Manchester Police’s dedicated team tasked with tackling serious youth violence deployed to the Rochdale district for the end of January and start of February 2024.

The deployments contained 14 days of intense patrols from Operation Venture who supports the work of the Greater Manchester Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) – a multi-agency team that seeks to prevent violence by addressing the underlying causes.

With officers embedding themselves in the area it ensures a heightened and more proactive response to keep the local community safe.

Results included:

• Seven arrests
• 12 positive stop and searches
• 36 intelligence submissions
• £5,000 cash seized
• £2,000 street value worth of Class A & B drugs removed
• A weapon sweep of parks and open areas linked to crime
• Four arrest attempts of wanted violent offenders

A team made up of an Inspector, two sergeants and 10 officers, supported by a wider analytical support group, used a mix of covert and high-visibility tactics to tackles offenders in the act and make a sizeable impact of reducing serious violence on the streets of Rochdale.

Examples of positive work included, at the start of deployment an arrest of a 29-year-old man was made for drug driving after he tried to evade patrols in Castleton, when later on officers seized an Audi RS3 for no insurance from Belfield.

A day later dedicated patrols pursued a vehicle that failed to stop and was being driven by an unregistered keeper. This was after a home address warrant in Smallbridge uncovered differing accounts and documents linking individuals to organised crime groups (OCGs) with an investigation ongoing.

Away from the road network, in Falinge officers plain-clothed officers witnessed a drug deal take place next to an Audi A3 with a pedestrian. With support from uniformed patrols, the vehicle was stopped and prevented from leaving. Inside were 26 individually wrapped snap bags of cannabis and around £5,000 cash seized. As a result, three men aged between 19 and 26 were arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply Class B drugs and money laundering.

As January progressed, Venture officers were deployed to Heywood and sighted a vehicle linked to the supply of vapes to young people. The driver was stopped and detained because in the back around 12 boxes of vapes were found along with £400 cash consistent with the supply. All the evidence was later seized in conjunction with trading standards.

Later that evening another vehicle from intelligence suggested it was an unlicensed taxi linked to supplying drugs to young people. After signalling ANPR cameras numerous times, a covert follow was done and stopped accordingly in the Spotland area. Following a search, the driver was found in possession of £600 in cash and 40 snap bags of cocaine alongside a burner phone. A 22-year-old man was arrested as a result and the vehicle seized for its use in crime to assist with further enquiries.

Towards the end of the deployment patrols were back in hotspot locations of Rochdale and Heywood where a 26-year-old man was arrested on suspicion with intent to supply Class A and B drugs. This was after they sighted the suspect acting suspiciously after being arrested a couple of days prior for a similar offence.

Inside his vehicle this time was more drugs, a mobile phone and through a further search located a unique ‘hide’ inside containing further mobile phones and sim cards suspected to be related to a drugs line operating throughout the borough along with several vehicle keys.

Inspector Jon Ezard of GMP’s Operation Venture team said; “After being back in Rochdale for an intense period of time we have shown again that our work is disrupting crime.

“This is in particular of new intelligence being recovered and shared across officers in terms of criminals trying to actively hide their dealing within the vehicle by creating spaces to avoid detection.

“I can assure the local community we will continue to patrol areas of concern and will continue to collate and act on information received from residents too.

“Operation Venture is having some real success locally due to our relentless approach of embedding ourselves within areas we know criminals use on a regular basis.”