Turkish barbershops around the UK have been attacked due to concerns that the facilities are being used by criminal gangs for money laundering, tax fraud and illegal immigration jobs.
The National Crime Agency (NCA), the UK's FBI, has launched an investigation, overseeing dozens of attacks over the past month, seizing tens of thousands of pounds in the process.
NCA officials are working together with local police officers, immigration enforcement officers and HM revenue and customs inspectors to carry out raids in British towns and cities.
Many barbershops are suspected of being used as a frontline to wash drug money or as a frontline to provide jobs for illegal immigrants.
In some salons, tax inspectors reportedly looked at the number of chairs used in the salon if the profits declared by the business corresponded to the number of customers.
One official said the Sunday Times has multiple barbers declaring all the large take, despite most days being empty.
More than 750 barber shops opened in the UK last year, according to Retail Analytics Company Green Street.
Since 2018, this number has increased by more than 15% to over 18,000.
A street with three independent barbers in Forsil and Coventry. There is no suggestion that these stores are involved in fraudulent activities
Hewa Rahimpur, 30, and his fellow Iranian Kurdish gang have been detained on suspicion of taking 10,000 migrants to Dover from the French coast in a small boat
Many of the shops operating as barbers in Türkiye are run by Albanians or Kurdish people with ties to smuggling and drugs.
Traditional Turkish style barbers are usually known for their stylish haircuts with hot towels and cut throat razors.
Nowadays, many are being investigated by the NCA and use a combination of raids to use friendly visits to the site to get more information.
An NCA spokesperson said: “In recent years there has been an increase in intelligence that links barbershop use and other cash-intensive companies to money laundering and other criminality.
“To respond to this threat, the NCA coordinated the actions of multi-agency law enforcement agencies targeting barbershops when suspicious activity has been identified and there is link to organized crime.
“This involves numerous police forces across England and Wales, as well as other partners, including the HMRC and the Department of Interior's Immigration Enforcement.”
In the UK, Barbers can choose to operate as a sole trader, so they do not need to register as a business with the company's home. You can then have the individual chairs become a hairdresser.
The recent explosion at Turkish barbershops along the UK's High Street has increased to around 19,000 in the past six years, prompting widespread suspicion of organized criminal activity.
Ilford resident Hiwa Rahapur is in custody in East London. He was later handed over to Belgium where he was brought to trial.
The arrest of Ring Lynchpin sealing people in the giant channel in 2022, first attracted the attention of the NCA with some of the more suspicious barber shops activities.
30-year-old Hewa Rahimpur and his fellow Irandian gang were detained on suspicion of taking 10,000 migrants to Dover from the French coast in a small boat.
After arriving illegally in the UK and claiming he suffered from “political oppression” in his home country, Rahapur was driving his best Mercedes when he was caught by police.
His gangsters had won £13 million in cash from the intersection and had to do some form of washing, so former barber Rahanpur entered the hair styling business in Camden, north of London several years ago.
He was extradited from the UK on trial in Belgium last year and is currently sentenced to 11 years in prison for human trafficking.
However, the doubts surrounding Turkish barbers have led many of the professions that have led to their reputation being damaged.
In his second famous trial, Afghanistan's 33-year-old Gul Wali Jabarkhel was accused of using his barber shop in Collindale, north of London, as a smuggling racket base.
In 2020, Jabalker fled to Kabul, Afghanistan, after realising that police were watching him. Only when he tried to return to the UK to hire one of the same truck drivers he used to smuggle immigrants a year later, two of his fellow men handed over £7,500 for a contract at the London Gateway Service in the M1, and were arrested in a money laundering attack.
Gal Wali Jabberkhell, 33, of Albania, was accused of using his barber shop in Collindale, north of London, as a base for smuggling rackets.
Tareknamouz, the owner of the Boss Clue Barbirs, was sentenced last year in 2012 for sending £11,000 to Syria to “purchasing weapons and explosives” for use against President Assad's government forces
Both claimed that money was to buy barber's equipment, but authorities were monitoring mobile phones and text messages and knew this was false.
Jabarkhel was convicted along with three others of his role after his trial at Kingston Crown Court two years ago, after the NCA described it as “a ruthless operation other than a commodity for humans to benefit.”
Money laundering salons are also linked to terrorism. West London snipper Tarek Namouz, the owner of Boss Crew Barbers, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for sending £11,000 to Syria to “purchasing weapons and explosives” for use against President Assad's government forces.
The barber, who lived above the salon in Hammersmith, boasted to prison visitors while awaiting trial that he was able to pay £25,000 to supporters of the Islamic State, which he was actually raising funds.
Last year, Reeza Jafari told MailOnline that enough people have doubts about the massive rise in Turkish barbers.
The 31-year-old is running pasha in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. He was born and raised in Tehran, Iran, but his family originally came from Uzbekistan and has now lived in the UK for 16 years.
He said:
“But most of the time, that's not true: we just want to make money and make a living just like everyone else.
Reza Jafari owns a Turkish barber shop in Kent and is tired of allegations of crime
Reza Jafari, 31, who runs Pasha in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, has ample people who have doubts about the massive rise in Turkish barbers.
“But a few bad things hurt the good things. Those that exist only for washing cash for criminals are so badly reflected on us all because we see them the same way.
In 2023, former metropolitan police officer Ali Hassan Ali said: Many of these shops have equipment worth thousands of pounds, but no customers.
“In some cases, stores have strong reasons to believe that in my own experience, what is owned by Albanians, Turkish and Kurdish people, especially those owned by Albanians, Turkish people, has a connection to organized crime.
“This can smuggle people and in some cases become drugs.”