A midnight phone call from a High Street crime gang, threatening to kill crime investigator Mandy and burn her house down, was just the start of a campaign of intimidation that would eventually force her and her husband to move home.

She faced escalating threats from a Kurdish crime gang, that had been selling illegal cigarettes and nitrous oxide canisters in mini-marts across the UK.

Groups of men repeatedly turned up at her front door and her car was rammed off the road twice.

Mandy is one of 24 Trading Standards officers who have shared details of the daily intimidation and violence they face from criminal gangs running mini-marts and vape shops, as they try to investigate unfair trading, illegal business activity and enforce consumer protection laws.

In testimony shared exclusively with BBC News, officers describe: Extreme threats - with one officer recounting a suspect in a shop shouting "I kill you, I kill you" and then threatening to rape a female officer Repeated sexual abuse - a female officer was "manhandled" and forced to watch pornography and another officer was "poked in the breast" Weapons being found in shops - including axes, bats, blades and hammers - and the discovery of a gun in a car connected to a business Attacks to officers' cars and property - with trackers put on their vehicles and reports of them being followed at work A car mounting a pavement "to run an officer over" Organised crime on High Streets has steadily increased over the past decade, according to professional body the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI).

A recent survey sent to more than 2,000 of its members suggests that 96% of front-line teams now have to deal with it.

More than 70% of officers - who work for local authorities in England, Wales and Scotland, and more centrally in Northern Ireland - have faced threats of intimidation or violence, the survey found.

In some areas, half of all mini-marts and vape shops, and up to a third of American candy stores are thought to have links to organised crime, the survey results also suggest.

For the first time, the CTSI has also logged where it believes High Street crime gangs are operating most.

The data reveals criminality in big cities, but also in smaller towns - including Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, and Barry in South Wales - and even in villages.

The "alarming emergence" of organised crime is the "number one threat" facing our profession, says CTSI chief executive John Herriman.

The UK government told us it was "working with the police, the National Crime Agency and Trading Standards to take the strongest possible action against these criminal businesses".

The intimidation Mandy experienced happened as she was helping to successfully prosecute a sophisticated gang running a multi-million pound operation across a UK-wide network of more than 50 shops.

During the trial, she says she was followed home and targeted by the defendants, who were on bail.

"They found out where I lived - and then three or four of them would just sit in front of my home. "

One defendant got her personal number, she says, and sent her "very aggressive" text messages asking for the money seized when his shop was raided.

"Bear in mind, he was a failed asylum seeker not permitted to work.

He was driving a nice BMW," says Mandy.

The intimidation happened round the clock.

On the night she got the midnight call she was alone - her husband was at work.

"I had this male shouting on the phone.

I could hear other males in the background shouting. "

She says the man said to her: "Do you know who you're [expletive] dealing with? You need to [expletive] stop.

If you don't, we're going to kill your husband, we're going to kill you and we will burn down your house. "

A couple of months later, Mandy's new car - parked outside her house - was rammed off the road in the early hours by an uninsured car connected to one of the defendants.

"It was over £10,000 of damage.

It was a brand new car.

We only had it for about three weeks," she says.

Just after her car had been repaired, it was rammed again in the middle of the night, and had to be written off.

It had been hit by another car insured by one of the defendants, she says.

After two years of constant intimidation, the pressure became too much for Mandy and her husband.

They decided to sell their house and move.

"This was supposed to be my forever home and we've just finished renovating it after 10 years," she says.

On police advice, the couple used three different removal companies and staggered their move to make sure the criminals did not find out her new address.

"I emigrated from South Africa to get away from that fear in your own home," she tells us.

The defendants who intimidated her were jailed for money laundering, illicit tobacco offences and fraud, she adds.

Their crimes, and Mandy's personal story, add another layer to the picture we have been piecing together over the past year about the scale of criminality on UK High Streets.

Earlier this month, we revealed how cocaine and cannabis are being sold over the counter in shops in West Midlands' towns - which led to the prime minister pledging more neighbourhood police officers.

In Greater London, a female Trading Standards apprentice, who asked to remain anonymous, told us she had no idea her role would be so dangerous.

"The second I step into the High Street all eyes are on me - there's four or five guys that will suddenly start moving texting people," she says.

Trading Standards do not have the power to arrest - but can inspect premises, seize evidence and request support from the police.

While searching for illegal cigarettes and vapes, the apprentice says she has been locked inside shops and, on one occasion, received sexual comments from a shop worker who said he was going to find her on social media.

"You go home feeling eternally unclean, like no shower makes you feel any better," she says.

If it was not for the support of her colleagues, she thinks she would quit.

The nights before raids on shops are nerve-wracking, she says.

"I don't sleep too well… nightmares… I don't know what I'm gonna see or come across. "

I often have to wear a stab vest for front-line work says Andrew Meaney, a Trading Standards officer in Wales with more than 36 years experience behind him.

The job - "dealing with organised crime groups" - has become "more dangerous", he says.

Andrew was physically assaulted by a shop worker, he says, after he stopped the man from driving away in a car filled with illegal tobacco.

"He became very aggressive, lunged at me, grabbed me by the throat… then spat in my face. "

Andrew says he was disappointed the man was fined only £415 for the crime of battery - an amount he says the shop could make back in a day from selling illegal cigarettes.

Mandy tells the BBC the "the landscape is changing in the country in terms of the level of threats" officers are facing from organised crime - with her colleagues not properly equipped or trained to deal with it.

When some shops close, criminals simply reopen new ones nearby, the BBC has been told.

The UK government told us it was establishing a new task force to strengthen the response to illegality on High Streets and money laundering - including 120 new Trading Standards apprentices - supported by £10m a year, for the next three years.

"Since March 2025, we have visited over 3,000 High Street premises suspected of criminal activity and arrested nearly 1,000 individuals," it said in a statement.

The CTSI wants £100m invested into Trading Standards to help fund more officers.

More funding would provide extra "boots on the ground" to "prevent serious and organised crime getting a foothold", says chief executive, John Herriman.

"We weren't set up to be able to deal with serious and organised crime. "

Additional reporting: Phill Edwards

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