Police forces from across South Wales, including officers from Gwent Police, have arrested 46 people and safeguarded 24 vulnerable people during a week of targeted action to disrupt county lines.

County lines is the name given to drug dealing where organised criminal groups (OCGs) move and supply drugs, usually from cities into smaller towns and rural areas.

Along with the arrests across the three police forces of South Wales, Gwent and Dyfed-Powys five county lines were dismantled, nine search warrants executed along with seizures of £34,710 cash, 7,020g of cocaine, 52 mobile phones and a variety of weapons including machetes, baseball bats and knuckle dusters.

The activity coincided with the National Crime Agency’s County Lines Week, a national “week of intensification” that ran from Monday October 3 to Monday October 10 2022.

During the week officers also engaged with children, parents and professionals to highlight the danger of involvement in County Lines activity and delivered County Lines awareness sessions to over 1,000 multi-agency partners and 11,000 children.

Detective Inspector Richard Weber who coordinated the week of activity in southern Wales, said:

“Whilst we work all year to take drugs off the streets, this week has brought some substantial results. By disrupting supply lines and taking those involved out of circulation, we can make south Wales’s communities safer.

“We can only do this with the support and information that we get from residents so I would urge anyone with information about drug dealing in their community to call us on 101, we treat every piece of information as important.”