Smash-and-grab rampage fuelled by foreign buyers with taste for gold

The attacks they are trying to clamp down on involve assailants targeting the front window of commercial businesses, generally a jeweller or designer retailer, before making off with high-value goods. They have been known to use mopeds or cars to force entry. The Met operation involving 70 officers began at midnight andfocused on three suspects who had allegedly stolen £537,000 of Rolexes from a store in Knightsbridge two weeks earlier. The team was briefed at a central London police station before splitting into groups to apprehend each of the suspects, who were arrested shortly after 5am. From November to February,…