Over 300 stolen vehicles worth more than £2.6million have been recovered and eight chop shops have been shut down in a week-long clampdown on organised vehicle crime across the UK, according to the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC). Operation Alliances, now in its third round, saw 32 police forces carry out intelligence-led enforcement activity during the week-long operation. Officers executed more than 100 warrants and conducted more than 280 stop searches, making more than 285 arrests for vehicle crime-related offences. The arrests included theft of and from vehicles, going equipped and burglary. Officers also arrested people for other offences, including possession of drugs and weapons, violent disorder and attempting to leave the UK while subject to court proceedings. Chop shops were identified and dismantled by officers from the Metropolitan Police, South Wales Police, South Yorkshire Police, Warwickshire Police and West Midlands Police. Eighteen of those arrested were linked to chop shop activity. Police recovered more than 300 vehicle parts worth in excess of £100,000. They also seized equipment used to steal and disguise vehicles, including cloned plates, relay devices, key programmers, licence plate printers, signal jammers and a lock-picking kit, as well as a handmade ignition bypass switch, knives and machetes and drugs. The operation also targeted a range of stolen vehicles. Alongside cars, police recovered a forklift truck, a caravan and a horsebox, all reported stolen. A stolen excavator, which was about to be exported, was also recovered. At ports during the same operation, 1,090 vehicles were stopped and checked. Thirteen vehicles were seized and one arrest was made. More than 50 charges have already been brought in relation to the arrests, with further charges expected to follow, while the investigation continues.