'We will kill you and burn your house': Council staff under attack from High Street gangs

'We will kill you and burn your house': Council staff under attack from High Street gangsJust nowShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleEd Thomas,UK editor,Patrick ClahaneandRebecca WearnWatch: Mandy explains how a gang targeted her and she ended up moving houseA 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 officerRepeated 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 businessAttacks to officers' cars and property - with trackers put on their vehicles and reports of them being followed at workA 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...