Wiltshire airfields are the focus of our latest Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking operation.

Operation Aidant, which will run from today (Thursday 23 November) to Sunday 3 December, is a nationwide operation that will involve gathering information, educating people as well as enforcement activity to tackle Organised Criminal Gangs (OCGs) which use the *Common Travel Area (CTA), like airfields and ports to carry out their crimes.

Wiltshire has a total of 61 airfields which fall under the CTA and currently we have no intelligence to suggest that there are criminal gangs using these airfields to traffick modern slavery victims or to carry out other crimes.  However, we need the aviation community – those who use the airfields for legitimate business and/or leisure - to be aware and look out for the signs of any criminal activity.

Detective Inspector Mark Kent said:  “As a landlocked county Wiltshire has no ports which would enable criminals to exploit and smuggle modern slavery victims but we have many small airfields.  Facilities used regularly by people for legitimate reasons and travel.
“Our intelligence shows that there is little criminal activity at these airfields in our county – I can assure you it doesn’t appear to be a major issue here in Wiltshire.  However, we mustn’t be complacent and so are asking the public who use these airfields to keep a look out for anything out of the ordinary or unusual.  This could be anything like a pilot acting suspiciously, an aircraft which has been modified or a concealed cargo being carried.

“We would like members of the aviation community to be vigilant and report to us anything that doesn’t seem right.”

Wiltshire Police is working with the Border Force and its Project Pegasus operation to combat smuggling, immigration crime and terrorism.  To report anything suspicious, please call 0300 123 7000 quoting Pegasus or report online via our website: wiltshire.police.co.uk - search for Pegasus.  In an emergency always call 999.

*The Common Travel Area (CTA) is an arrangement between the UK, Ireland, and the Crown Dependencies (the Bailiwick of Guernsey, the Bailiwick of Jersey, and the Isle of Man) that allows free movement of citizens of these territories, thereby removing the need for routine immigration controls.

Although enacted to facilitate the free movement of UK, Crown Dependency and Irish citizens within the British Isles and the island of Ireland, the Common Travel Area has also created opportunities for serious and organised criminals and terrorist groups to move into and out of the UK with a smaller chance of being detected by law enforcement partners.