Northamptonshire Police operation jails 'untouchable' drug dealers

Drugs worth more than £1.3m - some of which are pictured - were seized in Operation Poetry

Drugs gang bosses who thought they were "untouchable" have been jailed in a massive covert operation which resulted in 72 convictions, said police.

Northamptonshire Police said 18 county lines networks had been dismantled and £1.3m of drugs seized over two years.

The convictions were spread across London and the Midlands.

Det Ch Insp Adam Pendlebury said the leaders believed they were "beyond our reach", warning other criminals: "Don't make the same mistake."

Operation Poetry was launched in 2019 to tackle drug dealing which "had become so well-organised" that traditional policing methods "had proven fruitless", said the force.

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It discovered a "secretive criminal network" where vulnerable children as young as 14 were being used to sell drugs.

Much of this was through county lines drug networks, where criminal gangs move illegal drugs from big cities to more rural locations and sell them via dedicated mobile phone lines.

Police executed warrants across London and the Midlands to break county lines networks

Several warrants were issued at the end of 2019 across London, Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Northamptonshire.

Det Ch Insp Pendlebury said the target of the operation from the start had been the "people at the top of these drug-dealing gangs".

"This operation has done exactly that, leaving no stone unturned from London to Northamptonshire in order to put these people where they belong - behind bars," he said.

Home Secretary Priti Patel tweeted on Monday to hail the "excellent" operation.

Chief Constable Nick Adderley also praised the officers involved.

"The drive, commitment, determination, creativity, tenacity and relentlessness these detectives have shown here is incredible," he said.