Mason Moore | Hinckley Reporter | 10 October 2021

BOSWORTH’S Member of Parliament, Dr. Luke Evans, has welcomed a local crackdown on drugs in Hinckley and has praised police officers for their hard work in locally combating County Lines.

An investigation was being conducted for a number of months by officers in order to execute a large number of warrants to target the supply of Class A drugs in the area of Hinckley – and a total of 43 people have been arrested in concern with buying and selling drugs, known as ‘County Lines’.

The police investigation, named ‘Operation Impose’, began on Monday, 20 September, and seen a total of 20 people charged with drugs offences, from supplying Class A and conspiracy to supply both Class A and Class B.

15 other people remain under investigation and more charges are expected.

During the operation, a total of 73 warrants were executed and 76 addresses were searched.

Officers recovered almost £200,000 in cash, various offensive weapons and around 6KG of heroin with a value in excess of £300,000 – not taking the street value into account.

County Lines are created as criminals from larger cities move on over to provincial areas, often into vulnerable people’s houses, in order to ‘take over their lives’ by establishing a drug supply criminal enterprise in the area, creating a ‘County Line’.

Police believe this can have ‘significant’ consequences for communities and vulnerable people, whilst also raising levels of crime and anti-social behaviour in the area.

Responding to the Operation, Dr Luke Evans, said: “I’d like to thank both Detectives and Officers from Leicestershire Police for all of their hard work locally on cracking down on county line drug dealing, resulting in this extremely successful operation.

“Although we are surrounded by rural and often quiet countryside, it is a useful reminder that this kind of crime can happen anywhere.

“I would encourage anybody with any information on drug related offences to report it to the Police, to help protect us all from the dangers of County Lines.”

Minster of State for Crime and Policing, The Rt. Hon Kit Malthouse, said: “This is a brilliant piece of police work that will have a huge impact on Hinckley and the surrounding area.

“I congratulate and thank Leicestershire Police for the operation and for their strong commitment to our national mission of dismantling county lines completely.”

The Senior Investigating Officer for the operation, Detective Inspector Rob Arthur, said: “This has been the culmination of a lot of work by the team and we’re really pleased we’ve been able to arrest and charge a large number of people with drug related offences.”

Inspector Jamie Osborne, from the Neighbourhood Policing Area for Hinckley and Blaby, said: “This is hugely positive outcome for the people of Hinckley.

“County Lines gangs are using places like Hinckley to sell drugs and ruin people’s lives. There is no doubt that a significant police operation like this will benefit our communities.”

Anyone with any information about drug related intelligence can report it to the Police on their non-emergency number of 101, through the Police website here, or anonymously pass details to offers via independent charity, Crimestoppers, by calling 0800 555 111.