Specialist police unit to take on county lines drug dealers in Shropshire
Detectives are clamping down on ‘county lines’ gangs that are targeting Shropshire streets with drugs.
Operations have been taking place across the county as officers try and stop the flow of drugs from Merseyside and other cities across the UK.
Organised crime groups from London, Liverpool and Birmingham put children and vulnerable adults between themselves and the risk of detection by manipulating them into carrying and selling drugs.
A specialist team of five detectives has now been set up to focus on identifying and clamping down on the threat.
The gangs, who organise moving drugs into the county through dedicated phone numbers, have targeted children aged from 15 to pedal drugs for them on Shropshire streets, according to officers.
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Earlier this week local police officers worked with British Transport Police to identify dealers getting off trains at Shrewsbury.
Superintendent Mo Lansdale revealed police recently took out a ‘line’ from Merseyside to Meole Brace.
She said: "There is an issue in Shrewsbury. We have a specific team of a detective sergeant and four detectives focused on identifying new lines, identifying people involved in cuckooing and vulnerable people.
"We are taking positive steps, and have recently taken out a line to Merseyside to the Meole Brace and Harlescott area, and 10 members of a gang.
"But when you take a line out, another one pops up."
Oswestry is 'very vulnerable'
Meanwhile yesterday officers in Oswestry worked to identify vehicles that were being used to transport drugs around the town.
Detective Sergeant Andy Chatting explained that in other Shropshire towns gangs bring in their own dealers but in Oswestry children aged from 15 are being recruited.
He said: “Oswestry is very vulnerable to being infiltrated by drugs gangs from Liverpool, and children in the town are at a higher risk of being exploited than in any other Shropshire town.
“We know of two active lines coming into the town, and the gangs have recruited a core of Oswestry youngsters, aged 15, 16 and 17.
"However it is like wack-a-mole, when we take out one line another one pops up.”
In December the Marches School in Oswestry sent a letter to parents warning them that young people were being offered drugs on their way home from school.
