Controlled blast after police raids
BOMB DISPOSAL EXPERTS DESTROY ‘ORDNANCE’
POLICE have swooped on properties on Anglesey and in Gwynedd to seize items “inappropriately” taken from military and commercial shipwrecks.
Officers raided a house in Cemaes near Amlwch last Tuesday and a second property was being searched in Bangor on Wednesday as part of a UK-wide operation.
The search warrants were being carried out by police, the National Maritime Agency and the Historic England and Royal Logistic Corps of the British Army.
Police say Wednesday’s raid was in relation to the “appropriation and retention of maritime articles and war artefacts”.
Bomb disposal experts carried out a small explosion following the execution of the warrant.
A second property of interest has since been identified in Bangor and searches are ongoing with the consent of the owners, say police.
No arrests have been made and searches and enquiries by all agencies involved are set to continue.
Anglesey Chief Inspector Mark Armstrong said: “This was an intelligence driven operation conducted with other agencies to recover items removed inappropriately from military and commercial ship wrecks across the United Kingdom.”
“I can confirm a small controlled explosion was conducted late on Tuesday September 5 with the cooperation of a local farmer, to destroy a small number of items of ordnance recovered during our searches.”
He added: “I would like to reassure residents of Anglesey that these items posed no risk to local communities and were appropriately dealt with by the military personnel present in support of this operation.”
A spokeswoman for Historic England said: “Our Heritage Crime and maritime experts have been advising on this, working in partnership with Maritime and Coastguard Agency, North Wales Police, Receiver of Wreck and Army Explosives.”
“The Maritime & Coastguard Agency was assisting North Wales police with the execution of a search warrant, as experts in the recovery of maritime heritage artefacts,” confirmed a spokeswoman for the agency.
Amlwch Councillor Aled Morris Jones said: “As this is an ongoing operation it would be inappropriate to comment any further than to say I’m grateful all the different government agencies are working together to ensure that we are safe.”
Martin Sampson, who has run Anglesey Divers, in Holyhead, for the past 28 years, said: “The UK has a very rich maritime history, for example the coast from Holyhead to Liverpool is a graveyard of shipwrecks, many from the First or Second World Wars.
“But for many years experienced divers have known that anything they find on these wrecks - the [official] Receiver of Wrecks has to be informed.”