Thirteen people have been arrested following a series of early-morning raids in Wirral.
People living on Newling Street in Birkenhead were woken up shortly before 7am as doors went in at three separate addresses on the street in targeted strikes combating organised crime across the borough. The action comes as part of Operation Ground, which saw 13 people arrested on suspicion of Conspiracy to Supply Drugs (Class A and B).
The ECHO and other media were invited to attend one of the raids, where a woman could be heard calling officers a "gang of muppets" from an upstairs window as children were among those watching from the street below. Newling Street has been a "problem" area for police in recent years, with one resident claiming scenes like today's "happen all the time", while another said he regularly finds human faeces in his bin.
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A total of 11 warrants were carried out in locations in Birkenhead, Wallasey, Seacombe and Liverpool City Centre. Eight men and five women were arrested during the operation and a large quantity of Class A and B drugs and cash was seized.
The borough's Community Policing Chief Inspector, Tom Welch, described today's raids as "really important", particularly in the context of the horrific violence which has seen four lives taken in Merseyside over the past ten days.
He told the ECHO: “Today's raids are on the back of a 12-month operation into organised crime groups on the Wirral. A lot of extensive work has gone in on the back of community information and people working with us and our partners.
"I hope today demonstrates what we do with Merseyside Police with our partners to absolutely react on community information and reassure people that we don’t tolerate gangs, organised crime or disputes on the street of Merseyside."
This morning's action follows a series of raids across Liverpool yesterday, where officers arrested a 20-year-old man on suspicion of the murder of Sam Rimmer - the 22-year-old man shot dead in Lavrock Bank, Dingle, on Tuesday, August 16. Officers visited nine addresses in the city as part of Operation Miller, the force's ongoing response to serious and organised crime.
While the force said Wednesday's raids constituted them "baring their teeth", officers at the scene of this morning's (August 25) strikes emphasised the operation has been more than a year in the planning and was not simply in retaliation to the past week's atrocities.
Chris Green, Assistant Chief Constable of Merseyside Police, said: “We’ve been speaking to residents as the activity has been taking place and the vast majority of them are delighted to see this activity this morning because these individuals are toxic in the community.
"They drive intimidation, they drive violence, they drive worry, fear and harm. We want to take them out of the community and deal with them and take them to justice.”
"This has been 12 months in the making and there are numerous operations every single day ongoing to tackle all of the different threats we have from serious and organised crime."
He added: "Whether that is dealing with knife crime, with gun crime, we’ve seen some significant reductions in the amount of firearm crime across Merseyside in the last four or five years. We know that one firearm discharge is one too many which is why we will continue to be relentless against anyone involved in organised crime."
Over the past few days, a host of famous faces from across Liverpool have come together to call for change after the murder of Olivia Pratt-Korbel, the nine-year-old girl who was fatally shot inside her home on Kingsheath Avenue in Dovecot on Monday (August 22). And Chief Inspector Welch has today reinforced the importance of people speaking up if they have any information about serious and organised crime in Merseyside.
He said: "Information from our communities can be absolutely vital in such investigations, so help us remove harm from the streets. If you suspect drugs are being stored or supplied where you are, contact us via @MerPolCC or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 and we will do the rest."
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