All in all, 115 people, mostly Eastern Europeans, suspected of theft and other crimes, were arrested during the operation last week.
"The measure was aimed at fighting criminal groups that are engaged in various types of theft and move from one location to another on vehicles and have various forged documents the British police cannot check. This is why Lithuanian, Polish and Romanian officers were called in for them to be able to check whether those documents are genuine," Ramūnas Matonis, head of the Lithuanian Police Department's Communication Division, told BNS.
In his words, there are no information as yet whether any Lithuanians were arrested during the crackdown.
"There was one Pole who pretended to be Lithuanian, and there was a European Arrest Warrant for him. He was detained for a longer period," the police spokesman said.
During the operation on July 15-19, Lithuanian, Polish and Romanian police officers worked at a headquarters in Birmingham where they verified documents of suspected foreign registered vehicles detained on the roads of the UK. Two Lithuanian traffic police officers worked there.
"The main role of the Lithuanian police officers at the headquarters was to verify vehicle registration and driver's licenses and passports on databases. The UK has a lot of information that Lithuanians use forged documents," Matonis said.
The British and Irish media reported that Lithuanian police officers helped arrest 115 people from Eastern European countries, suspected of human trafficking, money laundering, fraud, drug import and various types of theft. It was the first operation of that kind in the UK. It is believed that there are 15,000 to 30,000 foreign registered vehicles in the UK.
