Police make hundreds of arrests as work continues to tackle drugs crime in Cumbria
Written by John Williamson on 10/02/2022
Cumbria Police investigations led to jail sentences totalling about 230 years being handed out in the last year as officers worked to keep communities safe from drugs crime.Two hundred arrests were made linked to drug dealing, illegal substances worth millions of pounds were seized and dozens of vulnerable people were saved from exploitation as police teams across the county worked round-the-clock on drugs enquiries.
Just two weeks ago, the latest result from one operation led to the latest members of a county lines drugs gang receiving significant sentences – with an associated impact on the supply line of heroin and crack cocaine at the time of their arrests.
In the last year, officers have also:
- Cut the number of suspected operating county lines drug gangs from 30 to three.
- Seized £750,000 in cash.
- Seized drugs worth £2.8m.
Operations, drugs raids and stop searches have been carried out by the constabulary’s serious and organised crime unit, community serious and organised crime teams, proactive units, operational support teams and roads crime unit, as well as detectives and uniformed officers across the force.
Officers have also taken action to safeguard dozens of people who it was suspected were being exploited as part of moves to make cash from other people’s misery.
But to keep up the fight against this type of organised crime police need the public to know the crucial tell-tale signs that it is happening in their neighbourhood.Detectives have issued the call to the public: Suspect it? Report it! And our officers will do their best to stop it.
One of the key priorities for Cumbria Constabulary is tackling county lines drugs crime, which is a particular type of drug dealing operation tackled under the banner of Operation Rampart.
County lines is the term for a crime network trafficking drugs using dedicated mobile phone lines to sell drugs that are trafficked into other places, usually across county boundaries.
In Cumbria, major successes in the last year two years have seen large-scale organised crime groups receive significant sentences after running county lines in places including Carlisle, west Cumbria and Barrow.
In a further breakdown of results covering county lines, during that time officers have:
- Identified nearly 30 county lines.
- Reduced the number operating in the county to three, reflecting the work going on all the time to tackle county lines.
- Made 131 arrests linked specifically to county lines.
- Identified almost 50 people who were thought to be at risk of harm from this type of crime.
In tackling other types of drugs crimes, police have:
- Pursued court orders to deprive suspects of about £110,000
- Seized about £70,000 in illegally-made cash
- Made nearly 70 arrests
- The Roads Crime Unit (RCU), which targets serious and organised crime on the roads network, seized more than £574,465k cash from suspected travelling criminals using Cumbrian roads.
- Officers in this unit also seized drugs from travelling suspected criminals to the approximate street value of £2.4m.
- In other units – including the serious and organised crimes unit and community serious and organised crime teams – officers have seized substances valued at more than £400,000
- Enabled by force and community intelligence units, serious and organised crime and operational support teams have identified and dismantled a number of sophisticated multi-million pound commercial cannabis factories across the county and disrupted outside organised crime groups operating in Cumbria.
Detective Chief Superintendent Dean Holden said: ”Drug supply can involve the exploitation of some the most vulnerable members of the community: children, young people and vulnerable adults.
“The people involved in this use and abuse our communities and line their pockets by ruining lives and badly affecting the neighbourhoods you live in.
“They blight the lives of the people working for them and exploited by them, cause addiction in the people buying their drugs and then there are the knock-on effect of anti-social behaviour and associated crime.”
Det Chief Supt Holden said the force was unrelenting in its pursuit of drugs gangs and county lines organised crime groups.
He added: “We’ve had a lot of success stopping drugs criminals and dismantling major county lines across Cumbria in recent years and work with our partners has led to people being taken out of the reach of these organised crime groups and safeguarded.
“This is what our officers do day-in, day-out to tackle and deter crime and keep people safe.
“But to keep up that work we need the information and intelligence to keep coming to us. Help us to protect your communities.”
Cumbria’s Police and Crime Commissioner Peter McCall said: “The public can be reassured that Cumbria Constabulary have continued to perform strongly and achieve continued best practice in tackling organised criminal gangs who use vulnerable children and adults to move drugs and money into and out of Cumbria.
“Selling illegal substances and taking drugs is never acceptable, there are no acceptable excuses.
“Those with an addiction to legal drugs can also face punishment for endangering the lives of others whilst high.
“It’s important to shine a spotlight on the fantastic work from a wide variety of teams within the force and the significant results achieved, especially in the reduction of large-scale organised crime groups over the last year two years.
“However, there is no place for complacency.
“To keep Cumbria’s streets safe from drugs crime, the police need your help to bring these criminals to justice, so please do get in touch if you have any suspicions, as your call can help save someone from falling prey to these dangerous criminal gangs.”
Worried about drug use? How to get helpIf you are worried about your own, or someone else’s drug use, help is available.
Recovery Steps Cumbria provides free and confidential support at locations across the county.
Call 01900 512300 or email referrals@recoverystepscumbria.org.uk to arrange to speak to someone, or visit https://humankindcharity.org.uk/service/recovery-steps-cumbria/ for more information.
Do you have information about drugs crime?
Anyone with information can report online at www.cumbria.police.uk/report-it
You can also phone on 101.
Alternatively, you can contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
County Lines and drug dealing – Spot the signs on your street
- New faces or accents in the neighbourhood
- Lots of different and regular visitors to a house on your street
- Increase in obvious drug-related activity
Spot the signs in children and young people
- Change in behaviour
- New friends
- Going missing
- Unexplained injuries
- Unexplained new possessions, such as phones or clothes
- Unexplained travel, such as going on trains and coaches on their own
- New risk-taking behaviour
- Substance abuseSpot the signs in vulnerable people
- Regular visitors to their home
- New, unexplained visitors or support network
- Becoming cut-off or estranged from family or existing friends or support network
- New risk-taking behaviour
- Substance abuseSo what is county lines?
- County lines is a growing issue across the UK – and Cumbria is no exception.
- It describes a type of gang and organised crime network which traffics drugs using dedicated mobile phone lines.
- Drug users ring a number to place orders – and local street dealers deliver.
- The gangs may exploit children and vulnerable adults, using them to move and store drugs and cash traveling across “county lines”.
- Cumbria officers are catching and bringing before the courts those involved, with many receiving long jail spells.
