Safe deposit raids uncover £53m

Officers believe the boxes were being used to store criminal assets

Police officers have found £53.5m in cash, jewellery and gold dust while searching safe deposit boxes in London.

Officers opened some 7,000 boxes believed to hold the proceeds of armed robberies and trafficking by international criminals.

Works of renaissance art, shotguns, passports and counterfeit currency were also found in the first raid to target criminals using this type of storage

Three directors of a safe-keeping company have been arrested.

Images of child sex abuse and large quantities of documentation the Metropolitan Police say suggests evidence of human trafficking were also found.

Scotland Yard said the Met's Specialist Crime Directorate had raided seven properties in total on Monday 2 June as part of Operation Rize - three safe depositories, an office and three residential addresses.