EIGHT people arrested after more than 100 police officers raided two East Lancashire scrap yards have been released on bail as the investigation continued into a third day.

The operation tacking the alleged theft of Ford Transit Vans, which began on Wednesday, saw warrants executed in Great Harwood and Stacksteads by a multi-agency team led by West Yorkshire police.

Lancashire Telegraph:

Teams of officers attended the premises of Tom Smith Commercials Ltd in Meadow Street, Great Harwood and Alf Kymes Ltd in Blackwood Road, Stacksteads.

Yesterday police said they had completed the search at Stacksteads site.

Teams of specialist officers remained at the second site in Great Harwood.

They added that investigations were likely to continue at that site over the weekend.

Police said a 53-year-old man, 38-year-old man, 32-year-old woman, 30-year-old man, and 29-year-old woman, all from the Great Harwood and Blackburn areas, and a 50-year-old man and 45-year-old man from Bacup, were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit theft, handling stolen goods and money laundering.

A 38-year-old man from Bradford was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit theft of motor vehicles.

A spokesman for West Yorkshire police, said: "All those arrested have now been released on police bail and enquiries are ongoing."

During the operation, West Yorkshire and Lancashire seized a vast amount of vehicle components.

At the Great Harwood site, which includes a large number of stables, three dead horses were also found and the RSPCA were called for assistance and enforcement.

Police said they had identified potential locations for stolen vehicles to be taken to, broken up into component parts and sold on.

West Yorkshire Police said they had traced Ford Transit Vans stolen from Leeds, Bradford, Kirklees, Calderdale and Wakefield to Lancashire as part of their intelligence gathering.

Chief Superintendent Pat Casserly of West Yorkshire Police Protective Services, said: "There has been a continuing trend of keyless vehicle thefts since 2010, with the 478 Ford Transit Vans vehicles being reported stolen between January 1 2015 and December 11 2015 alone.

"Behind everyone of these stolen vehicles is a victim.

"These vehicles are used in the main by small businesses and sole traders and when they discover the vans stolen it has a massive impact on their business with potential loss of custom.

"In some cases small businesses may go under simply through being a victim of crime.

"In my view criminal go for what's easy and what's lucrative and I don't think they get a great deal of difficulty to get into these vehicles, get them started and get them moved and as we see not a great deal of difficulty in stripping them down and selling the components.

"I do feel the security should match the sophistication and value of the vehicles and it doesn't."