Police have welcomed a sharp reduction in shootings in Salford following a string of arrests – including of a Bolton man who drove a stolen a Range Rover from Bury.

Operation Naseby was launched in April 2020 and aimed to get under the skin of local gangs.

In the previous year there had been 25 incidents of shots being fired.

Since then there have been 279 arrests, 297 vehicles seized, 118 houses searched and 50 kilos of drugs recovered.

In this time shootings have fallen 72 per cent with seven recorded in 2021 and 15 in 2020.

Among those prosecuted as a result was Myles Hindley.

BOLTON: Driver jailed after repeatedly handling stolen Range Rovers

The 31-year-old from New Street in Blackrod was jailed for two years for driving a £30,000 Range Rover which he had stolen from Bury.

Hindley has claimed the vehicle was a hire car.

As well as this, drug dealer Zach Trott, 26 and of Ellesmere Street was jailed on earlier this month for two years and four months after anti-gang cops caught him last summer just months after pursuing him in another chase where he was detained and found £3000 worth of cannabis.

Detective Chief Inspector Rick Thompson, head of GMP Salford's proactive policing, welcomed he results.

He said: "After two years of Operation Naseby, it's plain to see the prolific impact our tireless disruption team have had in all corners of our city since it was introduced two years ago.

"When the taskforce was formed, it was on a short-term basis with the simple aim of getting under the skin of organised criminals and doing all we could to be out there on the streets stopping and searching suspects, their homes, the vehicles they were in and seizing anything of criminal value.

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"That's seen us intercept and disrupt the type of activity organised crime groups were engaging in that was seeing us suffer the high rates of shootings we were seeing two years ago; now we're taking vehicles, drugs, and weapons from these individuals and arresting those suspected of being involved.

"We've been able to hugely increase our understanding of these groups - with over 500 intelligence logs being submitted - but I must stress that a great deal of information we receive comes from the public and thanks to the people of Salford we've have information that's lead us to well over 100 house searches.”

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