GLOUCESTERSHIRE police are supporting a national campaign to target foreign national criminals travelling on the country’s road network.

Police officers from Romania, Lithuania and Poland have arrived in the UK to join the crackdown, which is aimed at catching travelling criminals who use the roads to avoid detection.

Some travelling gangs are thought to be involved in volume offences such as shoplifting, fraud, metal theft and theft of parts from motor vehicles such as catalytic converters.

Under Operation Trivium, which ran for five days last week, officers stopped vehicles of interest to establish whether the occupants are wanted by police in their home countries.

Suzette Davenport, national lead for roads policing and Chief Constable of Gloucestershire Police, said: “Many of these criminals are organised and use the road network to travel from area to area in an attempt to avoid detection.

“Their activity has a damaging impact on communities and businesses that are targeted.

“We want to prevent the public from the misery they cause and build on the intelligence we already have.

“These criminal gangs must use our roads to carry out their illegal activity, so by targeting them in this way we are aiming to develop a robust system to tackle the issue in the future.”