A significant presence from Leicestershire Police and the Home Office were spotted taking over a large swathe of the car park at Tesco on Narborough Road in Leicester. A number of police vehicles and a van from the Home Office were on the car park of the supermarket on Tuesday afternoon.
According to an eyewitness at the scene, the situation looks like a traffic stop, with cars being pulled over and the occupants spoken to by officers. The Home Office's vehicle has 'Immigration Enforcement' written on the side of it.
Leicestershire Police confirmed that the incident was related to their recent County Lines arrests, and is part of their proactive policing in areas worst affected by drug gangs.
Follow the updates as they happened below.
Why are cars being stopped?
The ANPR checks follow a major operation conducted by Leicestershire Police, which led to 50 arrests and £300,000 in class A drugs being seized as part of an investigation into County Lines drug gangs.
Part of the plan announced following the arrests is that there will be proactive police presences in the communities most affected by the County Lines drug gangs - which suggests the neighbouring areas of Westcotes, Fosse, New Parks, and the West End are part of those communities.
You can read the full information about the arrests here.
Police carrying out ANPR stop-checks after County Lines arrests
A spokesperson for Leicestershire Police has confirmed that they are doing stop-checks using an automatic numberplate system in the Narborough Road area.
This comes following the 50 County Lines arrests made following a nine-month investigation.
They said: "Officers are currently carrying out ANPR stop-checks in the area of Narborough Road, Leicester.
"The checks are being carried out on the back of recent proactive enforcement into County Lines offending to identify vehicles linked to criminal activity.
"Officers are being supported by both the local authority’s environmental services team and Home Office immigration team."
Police being supported by Home Office and local authority
It is believed that Leicestershire Police are running the operation at the car park with support from the Home Office and officers from Leicester City Council.
We will have a full statement confirming the situation shortly.
Areas coned off for police and immigration officers
Part of Tesco car park has been coned off by the police and immigration officers as part of their investigation.
We are still awaiting information from Leicestershire Police and the Home Office for further context behind the vehicle stops.
Photo from Tesco
A photo from the scene shows the general situation as to what's happening at the car park. Cars are being pulled into a couple of spaces and police can be seen talking to the occupants.
'At least ten sets of police cars and officers' at car park
According to our eyewitness, there's a large police presence and officers are pulling cars in to speak to the drivers.
They told us: "There's ten sets of police cars and vans with officers at the car park as well as the Home Office immigration van.
"I saw officers escorting vehicles into the spaces and then speaking with the drivers and occupants. I couldn't tell if they were stopping just anyone or if they were bringing specific cars over for a chat.
"It doesn't appear to be a search of their cars, just speaking with the drivers and occupants and making notes. There's no crime or ongoing incident, necessarily, either.
"There's some unhappy faces from those that have been stopped, but nobody was kicking off or was visibly angry."
Joint operation between Police and Home Office ongoing
At least one vehicle from the Home Office and several police vehicles are parked up in a corner of the Tesco car park on Narborough Road.
We will provide further information from Leicestershire Police and the Home Office when we receive it.
