A once-bustling UK seaside town that many viewed as Britain's answer to party-hotspot Magaluf is now one of the country's worst drug areas. The reputation of the coastal area has plummeted in recent years.
Newquay in Cornwall looks inviting for tourists and party-goers with golden sands and Instagrammable-waters, with many young people previously flocking to the town for a weekend of revelry in the packed bars and clubs, reports the Mirror.
This reputation presented issues for concerned locals as a booze hotspot but now Newquay faces a significantly more dangerous prospect, becoming a drug capital in recent years with county lines gangs flooding the area with heroin, crack, cocaine and cannabis.
Police in Devon and Cornwall seized 18.7kg of cocaine in the year to March 2022, that figure was up from 16.2kg the year before. Ketamine seized rose from 0.3kg in 2021 to 1.8kg last year, according to statistics from the Home Office.
The Sun reports a teenager suffered a seizure last week in a Newquay nightclub event aimed at 16 and 17-year-olds. Police believe the incident was 'drug-induced'. A police sweep of the nearby towns of St Austell, Truro and Penzance saw 31 people arrested last month.
Dave Farrow, who has lived in Newquay in 1983 and worked as a club doorman during its heyday for party-goers when pubs were allowed to remain open into the early hours, said he has seen a seismic change in the landscape of the town.
"In those days people would often come out at 10pm or later, they’d be already drunk and wanting to party, and it would get quite messy. It was the party capital at that point and the streets were packed with groups of young people," he told The Sun.
"As a doorman I saw all sorts. I remember opening a toilet cubicle, the floor would be flooded in urine, but they’d be snorting cocaine and kneeling in it, because they were so out of it. Now the drug problem here is different. There are areas of Newquay which have become synonymous with drugs."
Other residents have reported seeing drug taking and deals done in plain sight on the town's streets. Authorities have made a concerted effort to clamp down on the party behaviour with police and council chiefs joining forces since 2009 to ban T-shirts with rude slogans and X-rated inflatables synonymous with hen and stag dos.
Alison Hernandez, police and crime commissioner for Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, said: "These operations will continue with my full support, which includes direct financial investment, so our communities and the dealers who seek to exploit our most vulnerable citizens understand that this evil trade will not be tolerated here."
The National Crime Agency estimates more than half of the areas targeted by big city county lines dealers are coastal areas like Newquay. The overall crime rate in Newquay in 2022 was 69 crimes per 1,000 people, which is 73 per cent higher than the county-wide average of 40 per 1,000 residents.
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