Police and crime commissioner calls for harsher sentences for "evil" county line drug pushers
Suffolk's police and crime commissioner said county lines drug barons should get it "lock, stock and barrel" as he called for harsher sentences for gang ringleaders.
Tim Passmore said he was pleased to see robust sentences being handed out to "evil" ringleaders but called for the bar to be raised, using laws to take cash from the gang leaders who trapped children, and the vulnerable, in lives of crime.
"They are thoroughly evil people those involved in this," he told Suffolk County Council's police and crime panel today. "The ringleaders need to removed from society."
The county lines - named after the mobile phone line used to take orders of drugs - often move between towns to import narcotics.
And the gangs running the lines often use high levels of violence, with ringleaders grooming young children to become drug runners and carry weapons.
Mr Passmore said he wanted to see more illegal cash being seized from drug lords using the Proceeds of Crime Act, with the money ploughed back into prevention programmes and rehabilitation schemes.
“I think that’s crucial as we go forward to send a powerful message to these criminals that if you are caught you are going to get it lock, stock and barrel.”
And he warned dealers: “You are going to to be severely punished because what you are doing to society is ruining not just families and individual lives, but at times whole communities. We don’t want that in Suffolk.”
Last month West Suffolk Council was told county line dealers had changed the way they operated, allowing them to continue funnelling illegal substances in to the county.
The authority was told there were about 14 lines operating in the western area, targetting addicts and the vulnerable in places like Newmarket , Haverhill and Stowmarket .
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