POLICE officers are continuing to crack down on a 'nationwide epidemic', a police chief has said.

Inspector Gareth Cust, of the North Flintshire policing team, told Connah's Quay town councillors that he is still doing all he can to tackle the issue of County Lines.

County Lines is when criminal gangs from major cities such as Liverpool expand their drug networks to other areas of the country. Often, young children and vulnerable people are targeted and a single telephone number is used to order drugs which is operated outside the area.

At their monthly meeting, members asked the inspector for updates on the issue and what officers are doing to tackle the problem.

Inspector Cust said: "How long have you got? It’s still something I’m preoccupied with a lot of the time because we put a massive amount of effort in across North Flintshire.

"It’s a really difficult issue because it’s a nationwide epidemic. Here, we do put a lot of time and effort in. We are the gateway, we have gangs from Merseyside and Manchester but we also have gangs coming from as far as Kent and London."

Inspector Cust told members that he recently launched an operation to target the Wrexham to Bidston train line, using Shotton railway in a bid to target criminals.

The team, along with a sniffer dog, carried out checks on the train and a number of arrests were made for a variety of offences.

Members also heard how warrants are carried out daily, where information comes from members of the community.

Inspector Cust added: "We can’t talk about Connah's Quay without talking about Shotton, they are extremely well linked. We held an operation on Tuesday and the aim of that was to target train line. In particular, we are looking for young persons being exploited.

"Hawarden bridge is another bridge used because of police activity in Shotton. I do devote a team to tackle County Lines and we carry out warrants daily."