Twenty-three suspected illegal gangmasters operating in the agricultural sector have been arrested.

The suspected group of men and women were placed under arrest during early morning police raids in Manchester, Merseyside and Lancaster - following a joint operation between the police and the Immigration Service and Customs.

Detective inspector Chris Hughes said: “It is suspected that those arrested have illegally entered the UK using forged travel documents…on the whole these people are the victims."

All the alleged illegal gangamsters currently remanded in custody are in their early twenties and from Eastern Europe.