Norfolk Police reveal total of 300 years in prison sentences handed out to County Lines drug dealers

Norfolk Police has revealed that its team targeting the supply of heroin and crack cocaine coming into the county have helped secure more than 300 years in prison sentences for dealers.

The force's dedicated County Lines team has also shut down 74 lines bringing Class A drugs into Norfolk since it was set up in 2019.

A County Line is run by a ‘line-holder’ who uses an unregistered mobile phone to arrange the movement of Class A drugs from London and other cities, using violence and exploiting vulnerable young people and adults.

Norfolk Constabulary’s specialist team, consisting of just seven members, uses in-depth phone data analysis to track down those line-holders to stop the movement of drugs at the source.

In the last three years, this has resulted in 82 convictions of kingpins and dealers, and a total of 315 years and 11 months of prison time given out.

Detective Inspector Robin Windsor-Waite, who leads Norfolk Constabulary’s County Lines team, said: “Targeting those at the top of the pyramid disrupts the entire supply chain into our county.

“Thanks to the hard work of our officers, it is now much harder to get hold of Class A drugs in Norfolk.

“At the peak of County Lines activity, Class A drug users in Norfolk were being bombarded by dozens of messages every day offering them deals. Now, once we’ve closed a line, users have the time and space to seek the support they need.

“Our tactics have been so successful that we have had a 100% conviction rate with all the lines we have targeted. Of the 82 people convicted, all bar one pleaded guilty due to the strength of the evidence presented by my team, meaning no costly trial.”

Norfolk Police has been working alongside the Metropolitan Police in their work.

Insp Windsor-Waite added: "Before this current way of working we couldn’t go after the line operators.

"We used a lot of resources locally, but this never tackled the problem and the lines still existed.

"But now thanks to new technology and the officers at Op Orochi (the London-based County Lines prevention team) we can stop this at the source.”

Chief Constable Paul Sanford said: “County Lines drug dealing and the exploitation and violence that comes with it has a devastating impact on our communities.

“As a constabulary we have chosen to focus on this serious and organised criminality and make Norfolk a hostile place for those behind it.

“These results are a huge achievement, but only show the surface of the impact our County Lines officers are having in Norfolk.

"The removal of these Class A drugs from our streets has a knock-on effect to other related criminality, protecting some of the most vulnerable people in Norfolk as well as the wider community.”