A seemingly ordinary Turkish barbershop in a Suffolk town has become the focus of a major police investigation into suspected modern slavery and criminal exploitation.
Sky News Business and Economics Correspondent Paul Kelso gained exclusive access to the operation in Haverhill on Tuesday 11 November 2025, joining police and multiple agencies as they targeted cash-intensive businesses believed to be fronts for criminal activity.
Behind the Clean Facade
The barbershop presented a respectable front to customers - clean, brightly painted, with a local football shirt displayed proudly on the wall. Two immaculately groomed young men told officers they commuted from London to work there.
However, stepping through the back door revealed a starkly different reality. In a dingy stairwell, officers discovered a bed crammed onto a landing and a sofa just large enough to sleep on squeezed beneath the stairs. The area was littered with empty pizza boxes, food containers and drink bottles, with personal items including socks and a T-shirt suggesting someone was living there against their will.
John French, modern slavery vulnerability advisor for Suffolk Constabulary, stated: "This could be linked to exploitation, this could be linked to some forms of modern slavery. You have to ask yourself when you come across this sort of situation, why would someone want to live in these sorts of conditions?"
Operation Machinize Targets Criminal Networks
The raid formed part of the National Crime Agency's Operation Machinize, a nationwide crackdown targeting money laundering, criminality and immigration offences hidden in plain sight on British high streets.
In Haverhill alone, police identified 17 premises of interest. Nationwide, the operation has visited more than 2,500 sites since October, resulting in 924 arrests and the seizure of over £2.7 million worth of contraband.
Sal Melki, the NCA's deputy director of financial crime, explained the broad scope of criminality being uncovered: "We're finding everything from the laundering of millions of pounds into high value goods like really expensive watches, through to the illicit trade of tobacco and vapes, and people that have been trafficked into the country working in modern slavery conditions."
Multiple Businesses Under Scrutiny
The operation extended beyond the barbershop to other businesses in the town centre. In a single block of five shops on the High Street, four were raided simultaneously.
A sweet shop yielded smuggled cigarettes hidden in food delivery boxes, while an Indian restaurant three doors down revealed a young Asian man whose student visa had been revoked and asylum claim rejected. He was interviewed via an interpreter dialling in on an officer's phone.
The multi-agency approach involved Trading Standards handling counterfeit goods seizures, immigration officers checking legal status, and council officials assessing planning and building regulation violations that could lead to fines or closure.
The final visit to a small supermarket uncovered another hidden bedroom, this one not much larger than a broom cupboard with a makeshift plywood bed. The man behind the counter, who claimed to be from Brazil via Pakistan, was handcuffed after admitting to working illegally on a visitor visa and faced administrative removal from the UK.
Mr Melki emphasised the operation's broader purpose: "We want to disrupt them with seizures, arrests, and prosecutions and make sure bad businesses are replaced with successful, thriving businesses that make us all feel safer and more prosperous."
