At any time of day or night, Strangeways, the area in the shadow of the Victorian prison tower of HMP Manchester, used to be a hive of activity. This part of Cheetham Hill just north of Manchester city centre was a focus for counterfeit goods hunters.
Even lockdown couldn’t put a stop to the roaring trade, with shops staying open illegally and customers crawling under the almost-closed shutters to bag a bargain.
These days, many of those same shutters are permanently down. The shops along Bury New Road – and in the grid of backstreets behind it – had operated for decades. But they are no more, and the area feels much quieter.
This week, the government announced it is funnelling tens of millions of pounds into tackling “dodgy” shops on Britain’s high streets, which are suspected of laundering up to a £1bn a year for criminal gangs.
A new National Crime Agency unit will coordinate investigations and raid businesses suspected of being fronts for organised criminals, while 75 new officers will be recruited by police forces in Greater Manchester, the West Midlands, Kent and Essex to join the effort.
And in Cheetham Hill – the former home of what was likely Britain’s dodgiest high street – it all sounds somewhat familiar.
Until fairly recently, everything from fake Apple AirPods and Ugg slippers to Manchester United shirts and Canada Goose coats could be picked up for a fraction of the original price, with people travelling there from across the city – and even across the country – as dodgy designer shops operated flagrantly in the open.
But behind the shelves of counterfeit trainers and fake sunglasses lay a darker shadow world, with organised criminals selling and manufacturing drugs, including fake prescription pharmaceuticals; distributing firearms; and forcing vulnerable people into modern slavery, including sex work.
“Suffice to say it should never have been allowed to get to this place,” Stephen Watson, the then new chief constable of Greater Manchester police (GMP) said four years ago, when he vowed it “cannot be allowed to continue”.
GMP says Operation Vulcan, which featured police patrols and high-profile raids around the clock, has been a huge success since it launched in the autumn of 2022. It resulted in more than 200 counterfeit shops being shut down, more than 1,000 tonnes of counterfeit items and £520,000 cash being seized, and violent crime and public order offences falling by 50%.
However, while almost everyone you speak to here will tell you the area feels safer, cleaner and calmer, the impact on legitimate businesses on the high street has not necessarily been positive.
Many of the hundreds of shops shut down by police remain empty, and those that have moved in, current traders say, are predominantly vape or phone shops. For the cafes and restaurants that used to do a roaring trade from the counterfeit shoppers, takings are down by about a third.
Maiwand Safi has worked at Mughul Grill and Coffee since 2012, and says previously there was “always trouble” and “people fighting” in the streets outside, as well as a lot of people working illegally “without visas”.
A building nearby that housed 10 counterfeit shops has been turned into a dance school, he says, and the area now feels safer. However, there has been a knock-on effect: customers are down by 30%.
“Before, our takeaway shop was very busy, but now … we are a little bit quiet,” he says. “Now it’s all mobile shops, vape shops.”
Similarly, at Desi Point, where manager Mohammad Iqbal has worked for 15 years, customers are down by 33%.
“Shops are closed – many shops are closed – nobody is buying, selling,” he says. “It’s clean now, and peaceful and everything; no police sirens around here, nothing else. Everything’s OK … but business-wise it’s very slow now.”
There are some green shoots of recovery; some businesses are taking advantage of the cheaper rents as supply of vacant units far outstrips demand.
Iman Ismael Zadeh lives in Cheetham Hill, and opened supplement shop SuppCity a year ago. Now the area is “much better”, he says.
“It wasn’t about just the shops that were here,” he adds. “There were many drug dealers around here, always asking: ‘What do you need, do you want some stuff?’
“Now you can’t see [that] anywhere around the area.”
While footfall may be low, his business has a big online presence on Instagram and TikTok and rents are a lot cheaper than three years ago. “It’s close to the city centre – it’s probably good for new businesses,” he adds.
Mohammad opened Al Maidah restaurant and banqueting hall six months ago, and feels that the police have been “doing their job”. “There was open criminality taking place before, but now it’s all gone,” he says.
Despite describing the area as “always dead” in terms of footfall, Mohammad says customers from all over the UK visit to ask about renting the space for weddings and other events.
And Ammanuel Kahsay, the owner of Momona Bar and Cafe, says he hasn’t noticed any criminal activity since moving from Portsmouth earlier this year. “I wanted to invest in the city,” he says. “I moved here because there is a big Habesha community.”
The cafe serves Ethiopian and Eritrean food and jebena coffee, attracting people from those backgrounds because of what Kasay describes as a “community-based” model. “I’m trying something new,” he says.
“Things are a bit slow and people don’t want to spend money because of rising costs, which I understand,” he says.
But for some businesses here, with those rising costs and without the draw of the illegal traders, it feels impossible to survive.
“What the police did, they closed everything,” Surbir Arora, who runs Real Super Grocery, says. “After that, you can see, all the shops are shut down now.”
He moved in two years ago, occupying a space left by one of the vacated counterfeit goods stores. Even now, he says, people still come into his shop asking where they can buy replica products. “Some people are coming from Scotland, Ireland, and Liverpool,” he says.
But he is struggling to find enough people interested in his legitimate wares, and is already making plans to leave and set up elsewhere.
“It is not very good. I am looking for another place, because this place is totally dead.”
