Flick knives for a fiver – the deadly Chinese blades destined for our streets

Flick knives for a fiver; hunting blades for £15; Samurai swords for £20.

These are just some of the cheap but deadly Chinese knives destined for our streets.

They’re being sold to teenagers and criminals online for pocket money prices – and sent out in the post.

Fortunately, this lot will never make it into their hands.

A special Greater Manchester Police operation was launched to intercept weapons before they’re delivered.

The hauls were – and continue to be – massive.

Operation Concept, in partnership with the Royal Mail and Border Force, has seen a staggering number of illegal blades seized.

In one two-hour session at a sorting office, police found 100 weapons. All were on their way to the north west; many to Greater Manchester.

A similar number of blades are seized every week.

Terrifying discoveries also include Tasers disguised as torches and knuckle dusters with concealed blades.

Disturbingly, some of the weapons were on their way to teenagers who didn’t need to show proof of age online.

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Some simply think they’re ‘cool’. Other youngsters say they need them for protection.

Police believe most of these weapons were bought on wish.com – an internet platform based in San Francisco which sells a vast range of goods at cheap prices.

 

Following pressure from GMP, site bosses have stopped knives being listed to UK customers.

Once blades are intercepted, officers visit those who placed the order.

The aim is not to prosecute, but to warn and educate people.

The operation, set up in March, is being run by GMP’s Violence Reduction Unit, based in Stretford.

In one case, a young person in care in Greater Manchester was able to purchase flick knives online.

Supt Chris Downey said: “He was a looked-after child in supported accommodation.

“He fully admitted buying them and said he had bought them in the past. He was selling them to friends.

“You are not only looking at criminal offences, but knives coming into a supposedly safe environment.

“The area of knife crime that has risen the most is possession. It suggests there is a big problem around the sheer volume of knives available.

“We are recovering knives that have not come out of the kitchen draw – they are combat knives. In this country, we have laws that prevent the sale of flick knives, lock knives. Yet we are stopping young people with them.

“We are good at preventing the sale of knives to people under 18 in this country. Then suddenly, this kind of stuff started appearing, which I know you can’t buy in stores in Manchester.

“So we started investigating where they were coming from, working with the Royal Mail and Border Force. At one sorting depot in the Midlands, they now seize and intercept all weapons coming into this country.

“They are all coming from the same place – China.

“It comes in the same packaging, from the same place. It doesn’t say flick knife, it will say garden tools or gadgets – a real crude attempt to disguise it.

 

“Officers from Greater Manchester came back with 100 knives destined for the north west after a two-hour session.

“They also returned with data as to who was sat at home waiting for them to be delivered.

“I reached out to the Regional Crime Unit, and then the neighbouring forces in the north west, saying we had uncovered this issue and these knives were destined for their distrticts.

“We now work together. Border Force and Royal Mail continue to intercept and once a week it all gets shipped up to us here, and we distribute to all the forces what was bound for them, and say ‘North Wales, Cheshire, Mersyside, that is your issue’.

“In Greater Manchester, I contact our districts and say ‘this weapon was coming to this person’. It might be a child, a vulnerable adult, or a criminal.

“We review and assess what that person might want the weapon for.

“One last week was a doorman, he ordered two flick knives. He works in an occupation where he has deal with confrontation regularly and is badged up by the Security Industry Authority.

“He is someone we might prosecute. Is he someone we want standing on a door?

“On the other hand, it could be a young child who is being intimidated who wants to carry a knife for self-defence. It is about asking questions as to why someone wants to buy a knife, then we will decide on our response.

“Often when we visit them at home we get ‘I didn’t know it was illegal’. It is so easy to obtain them, you could be forgiven for thinking it is not a criminal offence.

“One child bought a knife because he thought it was really cool. There is nothing on the websites to suggest they were illegal.

“We are now working with Wish. We told them they he had to be a child friendly site – 90 per cent of what is for sale on there is based at kids.

 

“Low price is the key.

“These are pocket money weapons on sale. A knife can be bought for £5, the more expensive ones £10.

“Legitimate sites will sell a knife for camping for £300 because it will be a quality item.

“The company would also challenge me about my age, and there would be safeguarding steps in place that make it prohibitive for children.

“But Wish and others are selling knives that look the same for pocket money prices. So we have challenged Wish and they have come on board and removed all knives off their website in the UK.

“But we are still recovering knives from China.

“I hopeful that within three to four weeks we will see it slowing down. But, at the moment, we are getting 100 knives a week for the north west, from just one sorting office.

“There are lots of sorting offices around the UK, so that is thousands of weapons a week coming into the UK.

“My intention is that when we have cleared the fog of Wish, the other platforms will start standing out. If we stem this flow, it will give us the opportunity to go to other suppliers.

“By bringing Wish in line, we can use them to influence the others. Then nationwide, we will stop thousands of knives coming into this country.

“People need to be aware that when they go online and buy these weapons, they are committing an offence. 

“We will intercept them and they will get a visit.

“My question to parents is: do you know what your children are buying online?”

A Wish spokesman told the Manchester Evening News: “We take the listing or sale of illegal knives on our UK platform very seriously.

“Such listings violate our merchant terms of service. We have been, and will continue, to deploy reactive measures to remove listings of illegal knives.

“We are pleased to have had positive conversations with Greater Manchester Police about how we can work together to tackle this issue.”

Supt Downey added: “Knives seem to be more available around the country. Knife crime has risen by 45 per cent nationally since 2016.

“If we come across a young person on the periphery of knife crime, or involved in knife crime, instead of just criminalising them, we want to do something different.

“Will putting them before a court change their behaviour? Probably not.

“We are looking for early intervention. It is about changing the behaviour of that young person.”

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