Shropshire Star

Shropshire Police: Help us fight county lines crime

Police today asked the Shropshire public to help stop ‘county lines’ drug dealers exploiting vulnerable people by forcing them into a life of crime.

Published
Superintendent Mo Lansdale said that people may not realise but the offences are considered as serious organised crime

The increasing problem, along with ‘cuckooing’, has come to the fore in recent months, and Shropshire’s police say communities can help to tackle the issue.

County Lines is the practice in which dealers from big cities exploiting people in rural towns including those across Shropshire as a conduit for selling drugs.

Cuckooing is where drug dealers befriend vulnerable people and gain influence over them, often using their property as a base for dealing drugs.

Both are issues that are challenging police across the UK.

West Mercia Police say that by its very nature is is difficult to investigate without the help of people who line in affected neighbourhoods.

Superintendent Mo Lansdale said that people may not realise but the offences are considered as serious organised crime.

As her force battles to put an end to the problem, she is urging communities to play their part and let them know if they think people are being exploited and dragged into the world of serious crime.

She said: “Serious organised crime is far-reaching and there are some many areas it touches. So many areas people will find to exploit and take advantage of people, and, not always but money is often at the heart of it.

“You might have a vulnerable person who normally lived on their own and suddenly they have people you don’t recognise coming and going.

Information

“They move in and exploit that person, use their property to potentially deal drugs from, use the person to run errands for them, they might even exploit them to the extent they are taking their money and benefits from them.

“That person is being exploited but may find it very difficult to get out of that situation due to threats being made to them.

“If that is someone local living in your community you may notice the changes – maybe they were living on their own, suddenly they have got lots of people visiting the house, they are more insular, they may not appear physically well.

“We have the powers to tackle that but we need the information coming in so that we can deal with it.

“These people befriend them from the off, they will give them gifts, but very quickly that relationship will change and they become the exploiter.”

Supt Lansdale said police officers were winning the fight against county lines but that local information plays a huge part in locking up dealers.

She said: “It does not matter how big or small the information may be it helps us build a picture of what is going on.

“There is some great work from the local policing priority team since they were set up and some of the warrants they have carried out are from information that has come from the public.

“However, in order to get a warrant we need the intelligence and information to go to the court and get the warrant in the first place. If we do not have the evidence then we cannot get the warrant.

“Some information we get comes from police interaction but some is from information shared by the community as well.”

“People may feed one piece of information in but may not see any action taken straight away but we have to build the bigger picture of information that allows us to effectively target the criminals in the community because when we do target them we want to make sure we can get the drugs and the weapons off the street and that it leads to a criminal conviction.”

To report concerns to police ring 101. Alternatively, contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111 or at crimestoppers-uk.org

Drug users given help instead of punishment

Police officers have been helping drug users get help rather than prosecuting them as part of a County Lines operation.

Operation Regent, which was set up to root out County Lines drug gangs coming from cities into Powys, has seen 19 people arrested and charged with drug dealing in the county.

Police said arrests have been made in Montgomeryshire and Radnorshire and work is still ongoing. Inspector Ash Brice is now compiling a report on how the operation went, with tips and working practices being passed onto other forces who are also tackling County Lines gangs.

Inspector Brice said the operation has been about more than just apprehending dealers.

He said: “It has been a big success so far and we are now evaluating different areas,

Targeted

“We have been doing more than just arresting drug dealers, we have been addressing issues with drug users. It hasn’t been about prosecuting all the time, it has been about helping drug users who have been targeted by County Lines gangs to get the correct help.

“What that does is it can clog up the court system and it doesn’t help the drug users.

“By getting them the help, it will stop them from using and stop them from being a target again.”

Inspector Brice he hoped the support for victims would make the area more unattractive to dealers.

He said: “We want to help the drug users, so when someone comes calling next time they don’t get involved

“It is about making the areas unattractive for drug dealers, because they will come back to the area because their is a gap in the market.

“By helping the users, it makes the area unattractive for dealers to come to.”