County lines crackdown leads to 41 arrests

More than 40 arrests have been made across Devon and Cornwall in a police county lines operation.

Operation Scorpion targets gangs who use young people to traffic drugs into the region from major cities, including Manchester and London.

The seven-day operation is run by five police forces, including Devon and Cornwall, Avon and Somerset, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, British Transport Police and the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit.

Alison Hernandez, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, said the crackdown was about taking "street level dealers out of action".

Drugs including crack, cocaine, heroin and cannabis were seized along with nearly £60,000 in cash, said police.

A number of phones, suspected to have been used to coordinate county lines drug deals, were also seized and 41 arrests were made.

Ms Hernandez said the operations were important in tackling organised crimes gangs who see the south west as a soft touch.

"We have been doing this for a couple of years now and have got a bit of a battle rhythm going on," Ms Hernandez added.

"One of the challenges that we face is that we have got a lot of people who are also being exploited, and we need to go and intervene in their lives as well. "

As well as carrying out raids across Devon and Cornwall, police also took sniffer dog patrols to Torquay train station to try and intercept suspected county lines traffickers as they arrived.

Operation Scorpion 12 also involved officers going into neighbourhoods to visit people believed to be vulnerable to being exploited by the drugs gangs.

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