Nearly 200 police have swarmed over breaking yards across the city to smash thieving metal merchants.

Cops and council officials raided more than 30 scrap yards across north-west London, in areas including Hammersmith, Brent, Hillingdon, Barnet Harrow, Ealing, Fulham, Hertfordshire and the Thames Valley.

Car thieves

Car thieves seem to have turned their attention from high powered sports cars stolen to order, to the scrap metal trade. Demand from India and China for steel, copper, brass, aluminium and iron has skyrocketed in the past 18 months. Police say scrap metal now fetches about £200 per tonne.

Harrow saw a 50% rise in car thefts last year.

Older cars favoured

Unlike new cars which favour plastic, older vehicles of about 10 years, contain more metal and carbon - netting criminals about £500 per car. The operation is relatively simple, gangs cruise the streets and load cars onto pick-up trucks, whisk them to scrap yards who can crush the vehicles into cubes in minutes.

Cops seized licence plates, computers and other documents in the joint operation.