Thousands of ‘pocket money’ knives seized
POLICE INTERCEPT 100 ILLEGAL BLADES A WEEK THAT KIDS ARE IMPORTING FROM CHINA
THOUSANDS of cheap, deadly ‘pocket money’-priced knives coming into Greater Manchester from China have been intercepted.
Greater Manchester Police set up Operation Concept with the Royal Mail and the Border Force.
A huge haul of lethal weapons, all illegal in the UK and heading for the north west, are being seized at a rate of 100 a week. They include flick knives, for £5, hunting blades and knives concealed inside knuckledusters, for £15, plus Tasers disguised as torches and samurai swords for £20. They are being bought online by under 18s who do not have to show proof of age.
Police estimate that most were being bought via Wish.com – an internet platform based in San Francisco which sells a vast range of goods at cheap prices aimed at young people. But the M.E.N. can reveal that after pressure from GMP, Wish.com has now ceased to sell knives to customers in the UK. Once the knives are intercepted, GMP officers visit those who have placed the order.
The aim is not to prosecute but to warn and educate young people who have been buying them.
The operation has been run by the force’s Violence Reduction Unit based at Stretford and set up in March.
Supt Chris Downey, from the unit, said: “Greater Manchester is unfortunately one of the top forces for knife crime in the UK. There has been a lot of attention being paid to what is going on in London as a result of which £100m was released by central government in March this year.
“The area of knife crime that has risen the most is possession. It suggests there is a big problem around the sheer volume of knives available. In this country we have laws that prevent the sale of flick knives, lock knives. Yet we are stopping young people with them.
“We are good at preventing the sale of knives to people under 18 in this country. Then suddenly this kind of stuff started appearing – which I know you can’t buy in stores in Manchester.
“So we started investigating where they were coming from – working with the Royal Mail and Border Force. At one sorting depot in the Midlands they now seize and intercept all weapons coming into this country.”
Supt Downey said all the knives come from China in packaging saying they are garden tools or gadgets.
He said: “Low price is the key – and these are pocket money weapons on sale. A knife can be bought for £5, the more expensive ones £10. It is ridiculously priced. Tasers disguised as torches and key fobs that will drop you in an instant are again £5, £10, £15 maximum.
“Legitimate sites will be selling a combat knife for camping at £300 because it will be a quality item. The company would also challenge me about my age, and there would be safeguarding steps in place that make it prohibitive for children. But Wish and others are selling knives that look the same for pocket money prices. So we have challenged Wish and they have come on board and removed all knives off their website in the UK. But we are still recovering knives from China. I hopeful that within three to four weeks we will see it slowing down. But at the moment we are getting 100 knives a week for the north west, from just one sorting office. There are lots of sorting offices around the UK, so that is thousands of weapons a week coming into the UK.”
He added: “People need to be aware that when they buy these weapons they are committing an offence. We will intercept it and they will get a visit.”
A Wish spokesman said: “We take the listing or sale of illegal knives on our UK platform very seriously. Such listings violate our merchant terms of service. We have been, and will continue, to deploy reactive measures to remove listings of illegal knives. We are pleased to have had positive conversations with GMP about how we can work together to tackle this issue.”
People need to be aware when they buy these weapons they are committing an offence Supt Chris Downey