THE North-East is to be included in a British Transport Police crackdown on luggage thieves.
Operation Joint Venture II will target the East Coast main line this summer, with Darlington and Newcastle among the areas to receive special attention.
Detectives from British Transport Police, posing as passengers, will travel throughout the country, in an effort to prevent luggage theft.
Police will also target known criminals with specialist surveillance teams, use hidden tracker devices to bug bags and deploy high profile patrols in theft hot spots.
Det Insp Steve Rogers, who is co-ordinating the eight-week operation, said:"Our operation is aimed at drastically reducing the number of people who have their holidays ruined by thieves."
Last year, Operation Joint Venture resulted in a dozen arrests on the East Coast line, with men in their 20s at thehighest risk from theft.
Suitcases and holdalls were among the most common items stolen. Sixty per cent of all thefts took place between Wednesday and Friday.
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