Police raid Sutton homes in crackdown on County Lines drug gangs

Officers from Nottinghamshire police County Lines unit were investigating reports that a group of men and women were involved in the supply of rugs using a county line from Sheffield into Sutton.

County lines is a term used to describe urban gangs supplying drugs to other parts of the UK using dedicated mobile phone lines.

The gangs are likely to exploit children or vulnerable adults to move and store drugs and they will often use violence and coercion to force people to deal their drugs.

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Detective Inspector Nikki Smith, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “Criminals working in the County Lines business models cause a significant amount of harm through the exploitation of vulnerable people, often using children to supply class A drugs.

"These groups also spread misery among the communities in which they operate, and this is why it is a priority for the force to target and disrupt those believed to be involved in county lines criminality.”

As part of a national county lines intensification week, officers from numerous departments across both Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire Police executed several warrants at various addresses in both force areas, resulting in the arrest of ten people with cash, phones and drugs also seized.

In Sutton, officers arrested a 50-year-old woman and two men, aged 38 and 52, on suspicion of possession with intent to supply class A when they searched a property in Warnadene Road.

They also seized around 20 wraps of suspected heroin, numerous phones, a dagger and household items containing white powder, believed to be class A drugs.

A woman aged 45 and a man aged 35 were arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply Class A drugs at a property in Stoneyford Road where numerous phones, scales and wraps of suspected class A drugs were recovered.

Another woman, aged 30, was also arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply class A and class B drugs.

She was also arrested on suspicion of possessing an offensive weapon after officers recovered a machete when they searched the property in Elder Street.

In South Yorkshire, the joint effort led to the search of five properties.