This is the moment when the police have attacked a series of Turkish hairdressing shops and seized more than £ 500,000 in illegal money during a performance against money laundering.
Bodycam images show that officers are making their way to the companies, which are increasingly being used as fronts by criminal gangs.
They grabbed more than £ 500,000 in dirty cash and arrested seven people after they had put 33 buildings last month.
The raids were carried out by the police of West Mercia, together with trade standards West Midlands Fire and Rescue, Immigration Enforcement and HMRC.
They were part of Operation Machinize – a harsh action against gangs who use hairdressing stores for fraud, money laundering and selling illegal goods.
More than more than £ 6 million in criminal assets has been seized in the year that it is underway.
It coincides with a broader performance by the National Crime Agency, which has had dozens of raids in recent months.
More than 750 hairdressers were opened in the UK last year, despite a broader downward fall in the High Street – increasing suspicions that some are used by gangs.
A police officer in West Mercia speaks to a man in one of the overall Turkish hairdressers
Sniffer -dogs were taken into the raids in the stores, which were reportedly used as fronts for criminal activities
Detective inspector Dan Fenn, from the Economic Criminal Team of the West Mercia, said: “Organized crime groups are opportunistic and exploit legitimate companies, such as hairdressing affairs, to hide their illegal cash flow.
'The high cash sales of these companies makes them ideal for hiding illegal activities.
'Our work during Operation Machinize sends a clear message to these crime networks: we will not tolerate criminal activities in our communities.
'After these warrants, 34 intelligence reports were submitted, so that a stronger intelligence photo is built up and future activities are supported.
'Community Intelligence played a key role in this operation. Part of the information used to plan these raids came from public tip-offs.
“That local support is invaluable and we encourage everyone with information about companies involved in money laundering to report this.”
Drug expert Gary Carroll, who spent more than 10 years in law enforcement and now gives testimonials from the court on street drug gangs, recently revealed that there was a 'copycat' aspect to the exploitation of the Turkish hairdresser format by criminals.
“It is a well -drawn path that will simply copy one crime group when they see something works,” he told MailOnline.
Bodycam images shows officers who make his way in the hairdressing shops
An officer in a police car drives a main street in the West Midlands before he enters a store
They grabbed more than £ 500,000 in dirty cash, together with £ 16,000 and arrested seven people after they had pulled 33 buildings last month. Shown is an officer who inspects a document
Boss Crew Barbers in West -London, whose owner last year was sentenced to 12 years for sending £ 11,000 to ISIS supporters in Syria
'And while we are increasingly leaving cash as a society, hairdressers are still predominantly based in cash – something they can get away because the costs they charge are relatively low.
'Then there is the extra attraction that this is a non -regulated market that is not checked by a government agency. So there is a lack of enforcement, without the one -off hygiene controls that you would get with food companies. '
Stores that bring themselves to the market as 'Turkish' hairdressers are often run by other nationalities, including Kurds and Albanians.
Yet Mr Carroll made a connection between the rise of Turkish hairdressing shops and the constant popularity of heroin that was traded by gangs from the country and elsewhere in Asia.
“If we look at money laundering, there is the established bond with Turkish heroin, and the question for that certainly does not decrease in the UK,” he said.
Traditional barbers in Turkish style are known for stylish hairstyles measts complete with a hot towel and murderous razor.
But there have been worries about criminals who infiltrate trade.
In the UK, Kappers does not have to register as a company with Companies House, with the option to work as a one -man dealer instead.
Barber Hewa Rahimpur, 30, was the lynchpin of a huge cross-channel people who smuggle surgery
He is seen here who are arrested by NCA officers in East London. He was later extradited to Belgium to be tried
Some stores also leave individual seats to hairdressers.
The arrest of people smuggler Hewa Rahimpur in 2022 was one of the early signs of the dark reality behind the boom of Kapperswinkel.
Rahimpur and his gang colleague Iranian Kurds were held on suspicion of bringing 10,000 migrants in Dover from the French coast on small boats.
The 30-year-old, who had arrived illegally in the UK and received asylum after having claimed 'political oppression' in his home country, rode in a top-of-the-range Mercedes when he was caught by the police.
His gang had delivered £ 13 million in cash of the crossing and it had to be washed somehow, so Rahimpur, a former hairdresser, came to the hair styling company in Camden, North Londs a few years ago.
He was extradited from the UK to end up in Belgium last year and is now a prison sentence of 11 years for human trafficking.
In a second controversial test, the 33-year-old Afghan Gul Wali Jabarkhel was accused of using his barber shop in Colindale, North London, as the basis for a smuggling racket in which he tried to recruit truck drivers to bring migrants to the VK in their load.
After he realized that the police were watching him, Jabarkhel fled to Kabul, Afghanistan in 2020.
The legitimate face of trade: Reza Jafari, has a legitimate Turkish hairdresser in Kent and is tired of accusations of crime
The street in Tunbridge Wells, Kent is shown, where Mr. Jafari's store is located
Jabarkhel was convicted with three others after a trial two years ago at Kingston Crown Court for his role in what the NCA described as a 'ruthless operation when people were little more than goods to take advantage'.
Some salons have also been associated with Terrorism, with Tarek Namouz, owner of West -London Hairders Crew Barbers, sentenced to 12 years to send £ 11,000 to Syria last year to “buy weapons and explosives” to use against President Assad's government.
The hairdresser, who lived above his Salon in Hammersmith, lived for a prison visitor while waiting for a test that he had actually succeeded in sending £ 25,000 to the ISIS supporters he financed.
However, the growing accusations of crime with regard to hairdressing stores have led to a recoil among legitimate traders.
Last year, Reeza Jafari told MailOnline that he has had enough of those who have suspicions about stores such as his.
The 31-year-old, who runs Pasha in Tunbridge Wells, said: 'People assume that if you have a Turkish hairdressers, you must have something to hide, that you have these links to organized crime.
'But in most cases it is not true. We just want to earn money and have a livelihood like someone else.
'But the small number of bad damage to the good. Those who only exist to launder cash for criminals, we all reflect badly because we are viewed in the same way. '
