The 7am wake-up call on Stanley Road in Liverpool came courtesy of the screech of a police angle-grinder and a shower of sparks.
As officers cut their way through a heavy metal gate, sleepy faces peered from behind curtains in neighbouring houses.
When the gate finally gave way, dozens of officers swarmed through and began to batter their way into a row of heavily-secured flats.
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The properties were suspected of being connected to the supply of drugs. A cannabis farm was found in one.
Passengers on a bus hemmed in by police vehicles watched on patiently, a bemused greyhound roamed the backyard, one resident remonstrated with police for breaking down his door. “I’m calling my solicitor,” he yelled.
The early morning drama was the opening act of a large-scale police operation in the Anfield area of Liverpool, locking down whole streets to target dozens of locations in a “sustained and relentless offensive against criminals”.
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Throughout the day, 300 police officers conducted warrants, roadside checks and land searches.
Dozens of people were arrested on suspicion of offences including possession with intent to supply drugs, sexual offences and possession of indecent images.
Officers seized a suspected firearm, machetes, drugs, thousands of pounds in cash and luxury goods during searches at the addresses.
From before dawn, a convoy of police vans, mounted officers and even quad bikes had flooded a neighbourhood famous the world over for its football heritage.
But it has also become home to a sprawling criminal industry; serious organised crime, drug crime, serious violence, domestic abuse, slavery, burglary, robbery, drug and drink driving, and a whole host of other offences.
Shortly after the raid in Stanley Road, police smashed their way through the front door of a neat semi-detached house, again looking for those connected to the supply of drugs. Their target was not there.
By mid-morning, at a checkpoint close to Liverpool’s Anfield stadium, a young man was stopped for illegally riding an e-scooter. He subsequently failed a roadside drug test and was arrested for driving under the influence. Several cars were also seized by officers.
The operation, codenamed Vanguard, is the second of its kind and is designed to be highly visible.
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Rob Carden, the chief constable of Merseyside Police, told Sky News: “On the last one we had a member of the public that came out from next door to a target premises absolutely in tears, sobbing, really emotional and said ‘I thought you’d forgotten us’.”
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Mr Carden, who took over last summer, has spoken of showing “contempt” for criminality and “compassion for victims and the decent law-abiding people who suffer as a result of the criminality taking place on their streets”.
“The message is that this is a police force that’s going to police on the front foot and that’s what communities in Merseyside want, they want a proactive, restless police force that are looking to make them as safe as possible,” he said.
