Nine people have been charged following a spate of burglaries from numerous farms and rural businesses in North Wales.
North Wales Police’s Serious Organised Crime Unit executed a number of warrants in the Shropshire and West Midlands areas in February.
The operation was part of Operation Calafat, conducted alongside Dyfed Powys Police and West Mercia Police.
The investigation came following reports of high value agricultural machinery and quad bikes thefts in rural areas including Tywyn, Dolgellau and Bala.
A number of items were seized during the searches.
Eight men and a woman have now been charged with conspiracy to commit burglary with intent to steal between August 2022 and March 2023.
The offenders will all appear at Llandudno Magistrates Court on 1 June 2023.
Rural theft alone was valued to cost £1.3 million in 2021, according to figures by NFU Mutual.
Earlier this year, the first made-in-Wales strategy to tackle rural crime was launched, with a focus on tackling farm equipment theft.
Elsewhere, Lincolnshire Police recently charged six men as part of an investigation into suspected rural theft and burglary conspiracy worth nearly a million pounds.
Large amounts of plant and agricultural machinery, pick-up trucks, vans and power tools were stolen over a two-year period.
Nearly £1 million worth of items were taken in total during a series of large-scale thefts and commercial burglaries across the East Midlands region.
