British seaside towns are being targeted by county line drug dealers who operate like supermarkets and putting local criminals out of business, a top police officer has said.
Police warn dealers from the major cities are now expanding their territory by going into towns with cheaper priced substances and pushing out ‘corner shop’ dealers.
The drug trade is exploding in small towns and the National Crime Agency has estimated half of the communities targeted by organised dealers are by the sea.
Coastal towns such as Bournemouth, Exeter, Weymouth and Redruth have become targets because there is less resistance from other dealers and a lower risk of being known by police.
Newquay’s police chief Inspector Dave Meredith has warned that British seaside towns are being targeted by county line drug dealers whose operate like supermarkets and put local criminals out of business (above, drugs seized by police in Newquay)
In Newquay, Cornwall, the problem has escalated to the point that disrupting heroin and crack cocaine dealers is now the police’s number one priority.
Chief Inspector Dave Meredith said: ‘It’s like a supermarket descending on a town and pushing the corner shop out. They come in, crash bang wallop, sell at low price and to anyone, bang bang bang.
‘Drugs are far more freely available in Newquay, and that’s a real concern for us.’
He said they are generally aware of who the local ‘homegrown’ dealers are, and where they live but claims county lines dealers will often have been operating for several weeks, or even months, before police become aware of them.
He said they travel down from the cities under the radar, and setup in a bedsit, making sure they keep an extremely low profile to avoid being detected.
‘Obviously they don’t want us to disrupt their business,’ he added. ‘Their job is to come down here and deal heroin and crack cocaine.’
In Newquay, drug dealers are more hands-on as they tend to travel to the town and setup a network themselves, rather than sending a courier to do their dirty work.
The dealers will establish themselves inside the home of a drug user or vulnerable person, in a practice known as ‘cuckooing’, before exploiting their vulnerability and using their home as their base of operations.
Dealers then seek out the local drug addicts on the streets before selling drugs to them via dedicated mobile phone numbers, or ‘lines’.
Earlier in April, dealer Ryan Walsh (left) and his girlfriend, Amber Bruce (right) were jailed for their part in a sophisticated £40,000 drug operation dealing heroin, crack cocaine, cannabis and pills
Inspector Dave Meredith (pictured) said: ‘If we take a reasonable size fish out and they get five years, it’s supply and demand, there will be a demand for the Class A out there with the addicts, so somebody will step in to make money
Customers are given an untraceable mobile phone number with its own brand name, and sent texts offering special deals and fire sales.
Inspector Meredith said: ‘Within 24 hours, they will find somewhere to move into. They’ll makes promises and supply drugs and put them under duress.
‘Drug addicts out there get text messages from people they’ve never heard of, saying this is for sale. They are very good at getting people’s telephone numbers, because the drug fraternity, they’re all communicating.
‘If you find one of them, they’ll have all the other’s numbers on the phone… They’ll text those numbers.’
Police are constantly working to disrupt the dealers such as Aliki Mamwa, who went by the name of Chapo.
In June 2017, the drug kingpin was arrested and jailed for three years at Truro Crown Court after being caught with 85 bags of heroin secreted in his body.
Police are constantly working to disrupt the dealers such as Aliki Mamwa, who went by the name of Chapo. In June 2017, the drug kingpin was arrested and jailed for three years at Truro Crown Court after being caught with 85 bags of heroin secreted in his body
Earlier in April, dealer Ryan Walsh and his girlfriend, Amber Bruce were jailed for their part in a sophisticated £40,000 drug operation dealing heroin, crack cocaine, cannabis and pills.
Walsh was jailed for five years while his lover was given a 15 month sentence suspended for two years.
Inspector Meredith said: ‘If we take a reasonable size fish out and they get five years, it’s supply and demand, there will be a demand for the Class A out there with the addicts, so somebody will step in to make money.
‘So it’s a never ending task for us and it’s hard work. I couldn’t say we haven’t got any big guns on Newquay’s streets right now, because tomorrow I could find out there’s a Liverpudlian team staying somewhere dealing heroin.
‘But we are looking for these people, and we are very aware of how they come in.’