Drugs and weapons seized as officers make 19 arrests targeting County Lines gangs

Credit: Derbyshire Police

Class A drugs and weapons were taken off the street as officers made 19 arrests as part of a wide-ranging operation to target County Lines gangs across Derbyshire.

The week of action saw a mixture of enforcement and community engagement work through the national County Lines Intensification Week (March 2nd to 8th) which this year had a focus on tackling child criminal exploitation.

Specialist teams executed numerous warrants and conducted operations to disrupt suspected drug dealing gangs across the county.

Officers forced entry into two properties in Allenton, Derby, resulting in the arrests of two people on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of Class A and B drugs.

The 35-year-old man and a 23-year-old woman have since been bailed whilst enquiries continue.

An enforcement operation in Chesterfield saw officers recover six bags of Mamba and arrest two people for drug offences.

An amount of crack cocaine plus weapons including a firearm, taser, machete and a knife were recovered following searches of an address and a vehicle in Erewash. Two people were charged with drug and firearms offences and remanded into custody.

More than £7000 in cash was also seized, along with quantities of heroin and a number of mobile phones believed to have been used for dealing drugs.

Alongside enforcement work, officers were out and about to deliver a programme of community engagement and training around how to spot the signs of exploitation.

Webinars were delivered through The Children’s Trust and the Ivison Trust covering a wide range of topics around County Lines gang culture and where to get help and support if you notice young people being drawn into a criminal lifestyle.

The force youth engagement team in conjunction with safer neighbourhood officers visited a number of schools to deliver inputs to students around how to spot the signs of exploitation.

Sports and activity clubs were also provided with guidance about how to pick up on potential criminal behaviour and further inputs were delivered through the force’s innovative Mini Police programme.

As part of Operation Trapped, officers from the Exploitation and Safer Neighbourhood Teams also worked with partner agencies to visit 25 different addresses across Derby and Chesterfield to safeguard against cuckooing.

A number of hotels were visited as part of the #LookCloser campaign to help educate staff about spotting the signs of criminality on their premises.

The campaign was also supported by advertising on buses, at the Derbion shopping centre and leaflet drops, alongside promotion on large digital advertising boards at the home stadiums of Derby County and Chesterfield FC.

The Crimestoppers’ Fearless campaign designed to inform members of the public about the dangers of grooming and exploitation was also rolled out.

Derbyshire Police Cadets carried out high-visibility patrols and conducted sweeps of known drug dealing hot spots using metal detectors.

Detective Inspector Chris Ford, who heads up the Criminal Exploitation Team, said: “As a force, we are dedicated to working around-the-clock to target and disrupt drug lines which bring misery and erode harmony within our communities.

“We yielded some outstanding results as part of CLIW, including locking up numerous suspects and the recovery of a large amount of drugs and weapons – all essential work to help protect our communities.

“Our enforcement work sat alongside our vital community engagement in order to raise awareness about how to spot the signs of exploitation, which is the first step towards reporting criminal activity that is happening within our communities.

“CLIW serves as an opportunities to highlight the key work to protect vulnerable people in our communities being carried out all-year-round.

“Members of the public can be rest assured that we will not stop in our efforts to keep people safe from the lure and consequences of criminal gangs and I would encourage everybody with information about this sort of criminality to come forward and report it to the police.”

The week of action was led by Derbyshire Constabulary’s exploitation team, with support from safer neighbourhood teams, task force, proactive teams, alongside other key departments and partner agencies.

CLIW was delivered with the support of surge funding from the National County Lines Coordination Centre (NCLCC).