Reported by RORY TINGLE and OLIVER PRICE,

Crimes including money laundering and modern slavery are ‘taking place in plain sight’ on the High Street – with organised gangs using seemingly ordinary shops as fronts for their illicit empires. 

Dramatic rises in offences like shoplifting have sparked major concern in recent years, driven in part by the fact these crimes often occur in clear view of other shoppers. 

But today, experts and worried business owners warned that much more serious criminality was taking place in a wide variety of town centre premises, ranging from nail bars and tanning salons to takeaways, convenience stores and cafes. 

And they warned that a lack of public awareness was allowing violent gangs to increase their grip. 

Police say drugs gangs launder money through bricks and mortar outlets by artificially inflating their revenues to disguise the dirty cash being pumped through their registers. 

Meanwhile, outlets that require significant numbers of employees – such as nail bars and barbers – are sometimes staffed by trafficked workers who have their passports taken away before being forced to work for little or no money. 

An explosion in the number of small businesses that largely take cash has only fuelled these fears, with ONS data analysed by MailOnline showing there 88 per cent more beauty salons than 10 years ago, 60 per cent more takeaways and 18 per cent more convenience stores. 

Read full report: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14205995/amp/The-money-launderers-hiding-plain-sight-high-street.html