Crewe police raid religious group headquarters

Police raided the headquarters of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light in Crewe as part of an investigation into allegations including serious sexual offences, modern slavery and forced marriage, The Guardian reports. Cheshire police said about 500 officers from across the north-west took part in the operation, executing warrants at the group’s base—a former orphanage—and other properties in the town. Several arrests were made, with suspects described as men and women of American, Mexican, British, German and Spanish nationality.

The investigation was triggered after police were alerted in March by a woman now living in the Republic of Ireland, who complained of rape and sexual abuse at the Crewe headquarters, according to The Guardian. Police said the alleged offences took place in 2023, when the woman was a member of the group. Chief Superintendent Gareth Wrigley said the inquiry was focused on individual suspects rather than the religious group “as a whole”, while officers searched the premises after the arrests.

The scale of the operation points to a safeguarding problem that cannot be handled as a routine criminal case. Police believe around 56 children live at the headquarters and are homeschooled, and said they were working with local partners to put safeguarding measures in place. A group that houses children collectively, controls education, and concentrates authority in a single site creates obvious difficulties for outside scrutiny: victims and witnesses rely on the same community for housing, income and social life, while investigators must separate urgent child protection from the question of criminal liability.

The case also sits inside a longer paper trail across borders. The Guardian notes the sect moved its headquarters to the UK in 2021 from Sweden, where immigration authorities investigated the group and issued deportation orders to dozens of members. In the UK, the group had also been investigated by the Home Office over its use of skilled worker visas. Those earlier inquiries were not criminal convictions, but they show how the state often encounters closed communities first through migration and labour rules—then, only later, through allegations that require police powers and social services.

AROPL has been described as a sect blending Islamic tenets with conspiracy theories, with followers believing its leader can cure the sick and “make the moon disappear,” according to the report. The group’s lawyers said their client “vehemently denies any wrongdoing” and declined further comment.

A grade II-listed building in Crewe drew 500 officers on a Wednesday morning, and the first official number still missing was how many arrests had been made.