NORTH Wales Police continues the fight against County Lines.

Sgt Gavin Gilmore, of the South Flintshire policing team, said despite what members of the public may think, the force is continuing to disrupt the supply of drugs into the area.

County Lines is the supply of drugs into rural areas from organised crime gangs in larger cities such as Liverpool.

The Sgt said: “We are getting somewhere but there's always someone dealing drugs. We just have to keep fighting on.

“Even drug dealers are saying it's very hot in Mold for police activity, so they know we are potentially coming through the doors.”

Sgt Gilmore said North Wales Police joined forces with the operation tasking team in Llay to form a joint operation with Op Racer and Op Blue Moon.

As a result, a number of warrants were carried out on October 2 across North Wales and Merseyside, including properties in Mynydd Isa, Buckley and Mold.

Around seven people were arrested including Liverpool males and local people.

Sg Gilmore added: “Class A drugs were found, and cash and a number of people are on remand in relation to that op.

“It was very successful from our point of view, a big crackdown on supply into South Flintshire from supply chains from Liverpool.

“Following from that, we successfully applied for a closure order of St Mary’s Mews to further stop that supply.”

Operation Blue Moon has been running for almost one year and around 12-15 warrants have successfully been carried out.

The Sgt said: “Op Racer was Mold based, when it gets to a certain level where we identify more players – Organised Crime Gangs using the County Lines front, so bringing them in with youngsters -when you identify more and more people it then becomes a bigger op.

“A joint op with us and other areas as well. As a result of our success last Wednesday we are applying for more closure orders and we are able to shut down part of Op Blue Moon as we have the main suspects.

“However, we are still running Op Racer to continue disrupting and dismantling the supply into South Flintshire.”

Sgt Gilmore said following the arrests in particular, they have seen acquisitive crime decrease, adding: “We are closing down the drug houses in Mold, it's those people doing acquisitive crime to pay for drugs, that’s what we find.”

On Monday, September 30, three people were also arrested from Powell Road in Buckley, two have been released on bail and one in remand, after a ‘substantial of Class A drugs were found.

Sgt Gilmore told the Leader: “The biggest thing we have asked is if people are willing to come forward and pass us information.

“It's a difficult one, we really don't want them to fear but they can come in and speak to us or report it anonymously online.

“This proves any intelligence we receive; we act on and we are getting results. The arrests do show we are taking it seriously.”