Officials in Devon turned to specialist gangbusters from Merseyside to tackle rampant drug dealing from Liverpool county lines gangs.
The Devon and Cornwall police area is the eighth most affected by illegal drugs supplied by Merseyside gangs, according to Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner Alison Hernandez. Ms Hernandez spoke following a series of raids involving officers from Merseyside Police which helped lead to the arrests of 40 people earlier this month.
Those raids, across Torquay and Teignmouth, followed another series of raids involving the Merseyside officers in May, which saw 43 people and a number of weapons seized in Plymouth. The Merseyside officers involved were part of an initiative dubbed Project Medusa, which aims to tackle county lines drug-dealing.
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Ms Hernandez praised the "specialist" officers. She said: "One of the places where drugs have a hold over too many people is Torquay, my home town, so it was great last week to see a huge amount of police action on drug dealing.
"Around 100 officers in total, including 30 from the specialist Operation Medusa team from Merseyside Police, swept through Torquay and Teignmouth. After a huge amount of work a total of 40 people had been arrested, drugs and weapons had been seized and South Devon was significantly safer.
"I’d like to thank both the Merseyside team and the local officers who put a considerable amount of effort into preparing intelligence for this operation to ensure that the Liverpudlians had plenty of property, people and vehicles to search.
"Well resourced by the Home Office, the specialists in county lines dealing know exactly what and who to look for, their undercover officers look the part, wear the right labels, hair styles and trainers as those they are looking for. They have portable automatic number plate recognition kit, pursuit vehicles and lots of experience from similar operations around the country.
"Their role is to stem the supply of drugs from Liverpool to Devon and Cornwall. This is a real problem with our force area ranked eighth of 43 in England and Wales for the supply of drugs from Merseyside."
The most recent raids involved the seizure of "multiple kilograms" of cocaine, heroin and amphetamines, a "significant" amount of cash, a number of bladed weapons, 12 vehicles, mobile phones and electronic scales.
Ms Hernandez added: "The idea is to tell dealers, wherever they be in London, Liverpool or anywhere else, that our communities will not tolerate drugs. And, as those picked up last week are finding out, if they decide to drop off narcotics in our neck of the woods, they may well be staying for longer than they had planned."
Merseyside Police Inspector Darren Wallace said: "Project Medusa is dedicated to cutting these County Lines dead and as this operation has shown, regional boundaries do not matter. We work with partners in other forces to trace those organised criminals responsible and help those who may be exploited by these gangs."
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