Cops smash gang ‘stealing £100,000s of stock from big supermarkets to order to be sold on in corner shops’

HUNDREDS of thousands of pounds in stock is being stolen from big supermarkets “to order”; to be sold on in corner shops.

Thieves are sent to grab booze and household goods from the likes of and and then pass on the loot to the independent stores.

A police officer conducts a staff search during one of the dawn raidsCops used invisible blue markers to tag goods in stores before they were stolenAn officer carrying out a stock check for stolen goods

Flying Eze accompanied Met cops as they smashed a gang in dawn raids — recovering £150,000 of alleged stolen goods and arresting a suspected kingpin, 48, and his wife, 43, at their plush home in Cheam, South .

Nine stores and a barber’s were also targeted by officers.

Eleven other people were arrested, mostly shopkeepers.

One man, 64, was nicked on suspicion of having a Taser and another, 39, a machete.

The raids we went on were in South West London, but similar organised has been reported in other UK cities.

Cops used invisible blue markers to tag goods — such as chocolates and cleaning products — in stores before they were stolen.

A haul of marked items was found in one of the raids.

PC Luke Taylor, whose idea it was to launch the shop blitz, said: “This is not just old-fashioned shoplifting.

“It’s a lot more organised.”;