Six men and one woman have been arrested after police carried out dawn raids across west London.

Officers from Kensington and Chelsea, Hammersmith and Fulham, and the City of London, executed 11 search warrants at residential addresses and market stalls to tackle a criminal network involved in stealing property and handling stolen goods.

Three addresses in Hammersmith, two in Shepherd’s Bush, and one each in North Kensington, Notting Hill, Northolt , Teddington and Surbiton were targeted on Wednesday (February 24).

A number of suspected stolen phones, laptops, and Class A drugs were recovered by officers, including shotgun cartridges from an address in Hammersmith.

Three 31-year-old men, a 34-year-old man and a 27-year-old man were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit theft.

A 42-year-old man and a 31-year-old woman were arrested on suspicion of possession of Class A drugs.

They were all taken into custody at various south London police stations.

'We will continue to target criminals'

Detective Superintendent Raffaele D’Orsi, from Kensington and Chelsea, said: “The arrests of these men involved in this volume area of criminality are the fruition of excellent investigative work by my officers supported by colleagues across the Met and City of London.

“The Met is clear that although there is an 18% reduction in MOPAC (Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime) crimes across London we will continue to target those individuals who individually or as part of an organisation target others possessions.

“Whilst we seek the public’s assistance with information about those involved in the receipt or selling of stolen goods.

"I would also seek to caution them that if the deal they are thinking of buying or have been offered appears ‘too good to be true’ it invariably is and means that the property being offered for sale is either a fake or stolen. Buying either can be an offence.”

Operation Goldspark began in January 2016 when Kensington and Chelsea police started investigating a theft from a motor vehicle in High Street Kensington.

A male suspect was arrested for the offence, which led to the identification of a small market stall that had been receiving stolen goods.

A warrant was executed at the market stall and a 31-year-old man arrested.

The search of a residential address in Surbiton led to the recovery of mobile phones and other computer equipment reported stolen.