Working 'smarter' has reaped rewards in Suffolk's crackdown on drugs amid a battle to stop county line dealers trying to 'get their footprints' into county towns.
It comes as the number of police drug seizures in the county has increased by almost 280% in the last six years.
New figures revealed that Suffolk authorities reported 1,372 drug seizures in 2006/2007, with the number rising to 3,045 in 2017/18 and finally to 3,794 in 2021/22.
The data also noted a 12% increase in the number of drug seizures in the region during the pandemic years, from 2020 to 2022.
According to Detective Chief Inspector Matt Bodmer of Suffolk police, the rise in the number of drug seizures is directly tied to the police's improved ability to find them.
He added: "Suffolk police have become smarter in what we focus our resources on.
"We’re very much intelligence-led with our work now. We use technology to help us focus on dealers rather than going after users.
"We’re definitely getting larger seizures and trying to disrupt those sorts of businesses."
The officer said that dealers are a real mix of people, including vulnerable teenagers and dealers from outside Suffolk.
He added that county lines are a big issue in the region, and Suffolk police has been cooperating with the Met Police on the issue.
"We’ve noticed that dealers from London are quite influential in local communities.
"They hire and exploit vulnerable people to come to Suffolk and deal drugs. Like in many other counties, they’re trying to get their footprint within Suffolk towns."
Suffolk police’s figures show that their most frequently seized drugs are Class A and are most connected with county lines dealers.
They also discovered a number of cannabis farms in Suffolk that are often linked to organised crime groups.
The national data revealed that the most commonly seized drugs in Suffolk are cocaine, heroin and cannabis.
DCI Bodmer said that Suffolk police works with the partners in regard to signposting people in the right direction and providing support programmes for those seeking drug rehabilitation.
He added: "We prefer sending people on rehab programmes rather than putting them in jail."
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