Shotgun cartridges found stashed in communal Battersea stairwell

Met Police
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A stash of shotgun cartridges was found hidden in a communal stairwell ceiling in Battersea.

Detectives doing a weapons sweep around the Surrey Lane Estate area found the ammunition on Monday. They pulled 30 cartridges wrapped in an orange plastic bag from the ceiling panel.

A Met Police spokesman said they were taken to a “secure location and enquiries are now underway to identify who placed them there”.

The sweep by the Met’s Specialist Crime Command was part of an operation to tackle firearms offences in London, known as Operation Viper.

The ammunition was found stashed in a ceiling panel
Met Police

Detective Inspector Richard Mullan, who leads the Operation Viper team, said officers noticed the corner of a ceiling tile was loose when they were walking up the stairs.

He added: “Within hours of the Met upscaling its focus on firearms for the week, we have recovered 30 shotgun cartridges that someone clearly didn’t want us to find.

“There’s no other logical explanation for them to be stuffed in a communal ceiling.

“Whilst this is a fantastic start to the week of upsurge that the Met is carrying out, we constantly react to intelligence and information when provided to us.

“Our work will now continue to identify who placed these bullets in the ceiling and if they have access to a shotgun. Our work has not ceased now that we have taken the bullets.”

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