Hundreds of officers were involved in a major policing operation as they tracked down an organised crime gang which operated a stash house in Nottingham. Detective Sergeant Adam Petty has revealed details from one of the largest operations that he has been involved in his career - which has seen a total of 45 people from Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Lancashire jailed for their part in the conspiracy.
Det Sgt Petty, from Lincolnshire Police's Serious and Organised Crime Unit, said that officers analysed around 300 separate phones and around a million of phone data to track down key members of the gang. He recalled a quote that stood out during their analysis of the cryptic messages.
"Call me the Latvian Escobar", one of the messages found on the Lancashire line read. "So it was one of the males who referred to himself as the Latvian Escobar as he was speaking to a colleague," added Det Sgt Petty. The operation, which started in September 2020, also included analysing intelligence, stopping vehicles and making arrests to "understand how the line was actually operating in Lincoln".
