Officers arrest nine people in fight against child exploitation and organised crime

We have arrested nine people this morning in our fight against criminal groups who exploit children and young people through county lines drug dealing and organised criminality in Staffordshire.

Today (Friday 20 September) we searched seven separate addresses in co-ordinated warrants in Kidsgrove and Newcastle-under-Lyme.

More than 50 officers, including specialist teams and police dogs, were involved in the action.

We seized class A and class B drugs, a number of zombie knives, cash, and items linked to drug dealing, including scales.

Following the activity, we arrested nine people on suspicion of a number of offences:

A 27-year-old man, from the Stoke-on-Trent area, has been arrested alongside a 24-year-old man, a 22-year-old man, a 21-year-old man, and a 19-year-old man, all from Kidsgrove, on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of class A drugs, human trafficking and modern day slavery (forced servitude).

Four boys, with ages ranging from 14 to 17, and all from the Kidsgrove area, have been arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of class A drugs.

All remain in police custody at this time while our enquiries continue.

Detective Chief Inspector Amy Martin, force lead for child exploitation, said: “Today we have executed a number of warrants targeting those we suspect of being involved in child sexual exploitation (CSE) and child criminal exploitation (CCE) linked to organised criminality and drug dealing.

“In doing so, we have also safeguarded a number of young people who we believe to be victims of exploitation.                                                                                                                                                                                 

“We take CSE and CCE very seriously and are determined to make Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent an extremely hostile environment for those hell-bent on exploiting children in this way. We will not tolerate it.

“We also need the public’s help; so if you see something looks out of place then please contact us so we can help protect children and young people from harm, and show offenders that they cannot hide and operate within our communities."

The activity follows our ongoing commitment to proactively target serious and organised crime across Staffordshire.

We launched Operation Target in May last year and have been working with local police forces to disrupt and pursue criminals who plan, organise and commit serious criminal offences across the county, including drug supply, illegal firearms, knife crime, human trafficking and sexual exploitation.