Surrey Police have claimed a major success in the fight against organised crime yesterday when they smashed the operation of a gang involved in large scale identity fraud and money laundering.

More than 200 Surrey officers, including specialist search team officers, took part in a series of raids in the early hours of this morning across north Surrey, Sussex and London. So far, just under £100,000 cash, 70 fraudulently obtained credit cards, 20 forged driving licences and 30 passports have been seized, along with a number of high value cars, including an Audi RS4, a Range Rover and a Porsche Cayenne.

Six men in their 30s and one woman in her 40s were arrested and are in custody at Woking police station.

The arrests follow a year-long investigation by the Surrey Police Economic Crime Department Money Laundering Team into an organised crime group that has been using fraudulent identity documents to open bank accounts in a number of false identities, causing losses of many millions of pounds.

Detective Chief Inspector Gary Sumner, of the Surrey Police Specialist Crime Team, said “This is the culmination of the first major investigation conducted by our Money Laundering Team, set up in November 2008 to tackle organised money laundering within the county.

“Today’s raids and arrests represent a significant success by Surrey Police, assisted by the Fraud Prosecution Directorate, UK Passport Office and DVLA, to crack down on organised crime.”

For more information visit Surrey Police at www.surrey.police.uk