Strathclyde Police have launched a special operation to target organised criminals using the M74 motorway.

The road, the main route from England to Scotland, is regularly used to traffic people, drugs and firearms.
 
Operation Beattock is a 48-hour campaign which will see specially-trained officers use patrol cars with on-board cameras and computers to search for vehicles with links to known organised crime.

The campaign will also see the use of unmarked police vehicles and a number of police motorcycles.

Superintendent Niven Rennie, the man behind the operation, said: "The aim is to disrupt organised criminals who head to Scotland from the south.

"Sometimes when we pull over a car for a check of documents or some other reason, we can glean all sorts of information.

"The road is used routinely by people involved in organised crime and we plan to target them throughout the operation."

The automatic number plate recognition camera is linked to a huge database of car registration numbers. If the camera, on the roof of the patrol car, films a car which is on the database, a warning flashes up on the computer screen inside.