Two men have been arrested in West Yorkshire as part of Operation Hawk, North Yorkshire Police’s ongoing crackdown on travelling criminals and rural crime.
At around 9.40am on the morning of 6 December 2013, a delivery driver reported that his Mercedes sprinter van had been stolen as he made a delivery to the Spa shop in Sherburn-in-Elmet.
The van had been fitted with a tracking device and officers tracked the stolen vehicle into the West Yorkshire area.
With the assistance of officers from West Yorkshire Police, the vehicle was followed to a residential cul-de-sac between Barwick-in-Elmet and Leeds.
Two men, aged 33 and 34, both from Leeds were arrested at the location and taken into the custody of North Yorkshire Police where they currently remain for questioning.
Inspector Paul Cording (right) of North Yorkshire Police’s Roads Policing Group, said:
The tracking device proved invaluable in this case and led us direct to the stolen van. If finances allow, it’s worth fitting a device to your vehicle as they can prove their worth in the unfortunate event of your vehicle being stolen.
Operation Hawk was established at the end of July to protect North Yorkshire’s rural communities from the threat of travelling criminals.
Officers are using a number of resources to secure the county’s borders and ensure that criminals find it very difficult to get into North Yorkshire and out again undetected.
Residents in isolated areas can also play a big part in Operation Hawk by acting as the police’s eyes and ears. Intelligence gained from those communities can help officers to focus resources in the right areas, giving them a better chance of catching rural criminals.
Results of Operation Hawk so far:
* More than £2,000,000 of property seized
* Potentially more than £750,000 of drugs seized (awaiting purity analysis)
* 105 arrests
* 145 vehicle searches
* 217 person searches
* 6 stolen motor vehicles recovered
* 13 other vehicles seized
* 109 prosecution files processed, including Fixed Penalty Notices
