Police seize £100,000 cash, luxury watches, high-powered scooters and a machete in dawn raids on ‘county lines drugs network’ in south London
- A south London drugs raid resulted in a huge haul of cash and weaponry
- Police took two designer watches, a machete, high-powered scooters and jewels
- Raids took place on a series of addresses, mostly in Wandsworth, south London
Police seized a staggering stash of £100,000 in cash during dawn raids targeting a suspected county lines drugs network.
The raids took place on a series of addresses, mostly in Wandsworth, south London, and come as part of the latest bust from police trying to crack down on drugs operations in the capital.
Officers confiscated two designer watches, a machete, high-powered scooters and jewels during the drug busts.
Police arrested three males and three females, aged 18 to 24, on suspicion of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs, and possession of criminal property.
Detective Inspector Treasa O’Donoghue said: ‘Organised criminal networks ruthlessly exploit vulnerable individuals for the sheer purpose of financial gain and it remains of upmost priority for us to bring those responsible to justice.’
In April the disturbing scale of the county lines epidemic was laid bare as new figures showed drug operations doubled in a year.
More than 3,000 gangs were reported by police in 2019 – double the 1,500 of 2018, a National Crime Agency report revealed.
It is a four-fold increase since 2017 when there were 720 operations shipping heroin and crack cocaine from cities to provincial towns.
The term county lines refers to the individual phone lines used by gangs to sell and distribute drugs.
Despite a crackdown by forces, figures from the National County Lines Coordination Centre show 800 to 1,100 phone lines advertising drugs are active every month.
Gangs are recruiting an army of youngsters to replace those arrested for dealing, with the report warn-ing that children as young as 11 are being intimidated into becoming ‘runners’.
And the number of young people being groomed to become money mules – so criminals can access their savings accounts – has shot up by 26 per cent since 2017.
In early June Met Police chiefs said 87 ‘county lines’ drug distribution routes had been cut off and 18 dealers controlling some of those lines were been jailed for a total of more than 50 years as part of its £1million Operation Orochi.
A further 1,300 county lines suspects have also been charged for violent offences, including 24 murders, by the force since the crackdown was launched last year.