High-end car parts found and three arrested as police raid Black Country 'chop shop'
Three men have been arrested after a stash of stolen car parts were seized by police during a raid on a Black Country scrapyard.
Officers raided the site in Kelvin Way, West Bromwich, on the back of intelligence suggesting it was handling and breaking down stolen vehicles.
Police spent two days at the scrapyard sifting through engines, gearboxes and body shells primarily from high-end luxury cars.
Several were identified as being cut from stolen cars including two Mercedes AMGs taken from the same address in Walsall in February, a BMW M4 stolen in Wolverhampton in January and a Range Rover taken from Coventry on Boxing Day, West Midlands Police said.
An Audi Q3, BMW and Land Rover were also seized for examination.
Three men – two aged 28 and a 22-year-old – have been arrested on suspicion of handling stolen goods and car theft.
They have been questioned by police and released under investigation while further inquiries are carried out.
A spokesman for Sandwell Police encouraged people to keep vehicles locked, use steering wheel locks and keep fobs in pouches to avoid keyless thefts.
They said: "Our specialist vehicle examiner is now liaising with car manufacturers in the UK and Europe in a bid to establish the true identity of other parts seized.
"We suspect this is a well-organised criminal operation posing as a legitimate salvage yard."
How to spot a chop shop
According to West Midlands Police, tell-tale signs of a chop shop include:
Noise coming from units late at night
Vehicles that look out of place going in to workshops and not coming back out
Large amounts of car parts being stored, sometimes in odd places such as gardens
Shipping containers in unusual locations
Expensive items such as engines and gearboxes outside workshops
