Ten arrested in raids on U.K. AROPL headquarters over abuse claims

More than 500 officers swept into Webb House in Crewe before 9 a.m., as Cheshire police moved on allegations of modern slavery, forced marriage and serious sexual offences tied to the U.K. headquarters of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light. Ten people were arrested in the operation, which police said was built around a detailed investigation into claims involving one victim, a woman who was a member of the group at the time.

Cheshire Constabulary said it first learned of the allegations in March 2026, even though the reported abuse was said to have taken place in 2023. Officers executed three warrants in Crewe on Wednesday, April 29, at Webb House, on Nantwich Road and on Badger Avenue. Police said the scale of the response reflected the seriousness of the allegations, and that they were continuing to search the premises after the arrests.

The people arrested were identified as six men and three women in one update, with a later statement saying ten people had been arrested. Police said the suspects were aged 30 to 44 and were of American, Mexican, Italian, Spanish, Swedish and Egyptian nationalities. A separate update also said 13 more people were arrested on suspicion of public order offenses inside the property, and that those arrests were not part of the abuse investigation.

The case has focused attention on how alleged coercive control can take root inside closed religious communities, where access, dependence and loyalty can make abuse harder to report and easier to conceal. Webb House, described in media reports as a former orphanage, was said to house around 150 people, including children, which heightens the safeguarding stakes for police and social services alike. Cheshire police said they were working with the local authority to support residents and put protective measures in place.

Police stressed that the operation was aimed at the allegations, not at religion itself. The AROPL, also known as the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light, was founded by Abdullah Hashem in 2018, and media reports have described it as a Shia religious sect or fringe Islamic movement that uses YouTube and TikTok to attract followers. That transnational profile, and the presence of members from several countries in Crewe, has added another layer of complexity to an investigation already shaped by claims of abuse, control and vulnerability inside a sealed-off community.