Lamborghini seized as 5 suspected drug dealers operating in Havant and Waterlooville are arrested in London
Suspected drug dealers operating a county line between London and the Havant and Waterlooville area have been arrested.
Specialist Metropolitan police teams raided three homes and a commercial property in London yesterday morning - smashing their way into one home which had been reinforced with metal bars.
Five people were arrested on suspicion of conspiring to supply class A drugs.
Cash, two Mercedes and a green Lamborghini were seized by police.
Hampshire police confirmed the suspected county line was active in Havant, Waterlooville and the surrounding east Hampshire area.
Home addresses raided in London were Rigby Close, Croydon; Derwent Road, Penge; Scarbrook Road, Croydon. The commercial property was Beluah Road in Thornton Heath.
Such illicit operations see supplies of class A drugs - usually heroin and crack cocaine - from major cities to smaller towns and cities, using local or trafficked vulnerable people or children to deliver drugs on the streets to addicts.
Chief Inspector Mark Lynch from Hampshire Constabulary said: ‘The threat from county lines drug dealing continues to present a significant risk to vulnerable children and adults living within Hampshire, despite the current Covid-19 restrictions the country finds itself in.
‘Please be reassured that despite the operational challenges the pandemic poses to us and other front line emergency services, tackling organised crime in all its various guises remains our core focus and operations to disrupt criminals who attempt to profit from drug dealing will continue.
‘Not only will we prosecute those found responsible to the full extent of the law, but we will also seek to maximise every opportunity to strip them of their illicit gains.
‘The sad reality is that vulnerable young people are often targeted, coerced with either threats or false promises of cash and designer possessions, when in reality those criminals regard those children as nothing more than a disposable asset, to be used and abused until they have no longer have any need for them.
'The added dimension of Covid-19 just presents yet another serious health risk to those youths and those that they associate with.
'By working effectively with the wider Hampshire & (Isle of Wight) partnerships, we seek not only to help those in need at this time, but also to stop and deter other children in the future becoming entangled in this emotive and horrific area of modern day criminality.’