More than 100 arrests in county lines operation

More than 100 arrests were made across the South West in a week of police action against drugs and child exploitation

Police have seized guns and arrested more than 100 people across the south west of England in a week of police action against drugs and child exploitation.

Operation Scorpion targets gangs who use young people to traffic drugs into the region from major cities. Police said 122 people were arrested across the region.

Officers, police dogs and the British Transport Police focused on the main railway routes into Cornwall to intercept suspected county lines traffickers.

Ned Bowie, sector inspector for south east Cornwall, said: "Transport links are being utilised by organised crime groups and they will exploit vulnerable people to use those routes."

The seven-day operation involved five police forces, the British Transport Police and the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit

The seven-day operation involved five police forces - Avon and Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, Dorset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire - along with British Transport Police and the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit.

They seized £67,329 in cash, confiscated 52kg of cannabis including 868 cannabis plants and recovered three guns as well as five imitation firearms.

They also safeguarded 48 people, including five children.

At Plymouth Railway Station, passengers were given the opportunity to dispose of any drugs in an amnesty bin on the platform before being sniffed by the passive drugs dog Jasper.

At Plymouth Railway Station, passengers were given the opportunity to dispose of drugs in an amnesty bin before being sniffed by the passive drugs dog

PC John Warren, from Devon and Cornwall Police, said: "As people file past, he's going to sniff the air around them, and if he senses the presence of the main drugs you would have heard of, he will indicate by following that person."

Insp Bowie added: "What we would like from that is a wake-up call. We are giving you the opportunity this time to give up those drugs when you may not get that opportunity next time. We hope it will stop that behaviour in the future."

Richard Deavall, a police community support officer for the British Transport Police, carried out train patrols to look out for vulnerable people who may be involved in county lines.

"The big one for us is support those vulnerable people, to get them out of that environment and into safety."