Police dawn raids target new organised crime group

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Police dawn raids target new organised ****** group

Operation Silhouette has made 36 arrests for serious and organised ******

The police van we were following had taken an unexpected turn down a road of privately owned detached houses and bungalows.

It didn’t feel like the kind of place where you would normally witness a dawn raid by the serious and organised ****** unit.

Yet within minutes the street’s peace and quiet was shattered by the screech of glass cutters, the baying of startled dogs, then shouts of “police.”

The house in Barrhead, south of Glasgow, was one of 13 addresses targeted by a Police Scotland campaign against alleged members of a newly identified ****** group. The dawn raids led to eight arrests.

Operation Silhouette now has a total of 36 arrests, the seizure of ******** and cannabis worth £6m, and the discovery of £1.5m in cash.

BBC Scotland News followed the operation in Barrhead, East Renfrewshire

In its latest phase, sanctioned by search warrants granted by sheriffs, simultaneous raids were carried across four police divisions – Greater Glasgow, Ayrshire, Lanarkshire and East Renfrewshire.

The PVC front door of the house in Barrhead presented a challenge so the glass cutters carved out a ***** big enough for public order officers and detectives to step through.

A search of the property followed. More than a hundred officers were carrying out the same task elsewhere, looking for drugs and ****** money.

Operation Silhouette’s senior investigating officer, Det Ch Insp Laura Sands said: “Over the last 18 months we’ve become aware of this group’s presence and we’ve been working to dismantle and disrupt them.

“We see the impact of serious organised ****** on families. We know the misery that drugs cause in our communities and the harm they cause to vulnerable individuals.”

Officers use a glass cutter to enter the home through a PVC front door

Officers remove a bag of evidence on a night when eight arrests are made

There is no doubt that Police Scotland has been making significant inroads against organised ****** in recent years.

Their success is one of the reasons the country’s jails are so overcrowded, presenting prison officers with the challenge of keeping rival groups apart.

In October, another police operation led to the

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, including 90kgs of ********, 23 kgs of ******* and 19kgs of MDMA.

But convictions and seizures do not appear to have made a major impact on Scotland’s ****** toll from drugs, which ******** the worst in Europe.

In the first six months of 2024, there were 589 suspected drugs deaths, just 2% lower than the same ******* last year.

The ***’s first official consumption room for ******** drugs including ******* and ********

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

and the SNP-run Scottish government has proposed the decriminalisation of drugs for personal use to “help and support people rather than criminalise and stigmatise them”.

The *** Labour government, which controls drugs policy, has no plans to do so.

Det Ch Insp Sands says Police Scotland is working to disrupt the new ****** group

While politicians and campaigners debate what should be done, the police get on with their job of targeting the drugs trade.

Their raids on Friday saw officers target properties in Glasgow, Cambuslang, Gartcosh, Barrhead, Renfrew and Saltcoats.

Five men, aged 32, 30, 28, 29 and 28, were charged with involvement in serious and organised ****** and are due to appear at Glasgow Sheriff Court later.

A 36-year-old man was charged with being concerned in the supply of drugs.

A man aged 29 and a 27-year-old woman were released pending further inquiries.

Det Ch Insp Sands said: “We want to send out a clear message that you are not untouchable, we will target you and bring you to justice.”

She wanted the general public to know that if they report suspicions about people in their communities with unexplained wealth, action will be taken.

Asked if they were playing whack-a-mole, taking down one group only for another to take its place, she said: “It’s a constant battle.”

“We will work tirelessly and we will not stop in our ****** against serious and organised ******. What we’re doing shows people that if they report it, we’ll do something about it.”

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#Police #dawn #raids #target #organised #****** #group

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up