My jaw dropped as police found a zombie knife bigger than my arm in 6am raids

Outside a south London home with a rose bush in the garden and a freshly painted white fence, police officers wearing tactical gear wait silently.

It is 5am, and Metro has joined the Metropolitan Police in Mitcham, Merton, for a spate of dawn raids across the borough.

You could have heard a pin drop as officers carrying door rammers and glass cutters arrived. They were not needed. In the end, the front door was unlocked, and nearly 20 officers simply walked in.

But as they entered, ready to arrest a man on suspicion of supplying Class-A drugs, a child could be heard crying for their mum through one of the top-floor windows.

The level of force suddenly seemed bizarre, but officers today were preventing further stabbings tomorrow – specifically at Notting Hill Carnival – as part of Operation Haldor.

At a different address around the corner, we watched as a zombie knife as long as my forearm was pulled from between two pillows in a futon where someone was sleeping as officers arrived.

Inspector Kevin Chambers said: ‘If we make these arrests now, we can stop people going to Notting Hill Carnival to cause harm.

‘We are not just looking to get teenagers with a couple of bags of weed – these are exploiters within London gangs.’

Lying on the table next to the futon was a flick knife, left completely out in the open. Two more knives were seized from the property, having been stashed in cupboards.

One knife even unscrewed at the bottom, a tactic officers said was often used by gang members to hide drugs. It was better than finding them up a perpetrator’s bum, which one officer told me had happened one too many times for his liking.

Both a mum and her son were arrested at the property, with family members often being brought into the criminal world together.

Inspector Chambers said: ‘It’s sad to face, but a lot of people who are exploited later become the exploiters. Women are no exception.’

In total, 20 people were arrested and 16 weapons were seized, including a machete.

A large quantity of Class A and Class B drugs were also found, with an estimated street value of £27,000.

But it is hoped that these finds will all contribute to making Notting Hill Carnival safer, with bail conditions imposed on those found with knives.

Inspector Chambers said: ‘We like to remind officers to impose these conditions to make the carnival as safe as possible.

‘And if it means the people who we have caught today can’t go, then we have done our job.’

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