Greater fight needed to beat crime gangs

Last week the police’s South West Regional Organised Crime Unit (SWROCU) raided properties, including here in Avon and Somerset, making 31 arrests regionally and seizing £790,000 of criminal cash and 23 kilos of illegal drugs, mostly cocaine.

Shockingly, they also found, locally, a number of handguns and ammunition.

Officers never know what may be behind a door when they go through it.

Their courage is helping to keep us all safe and they deserve huge praise and our strong support.

Frontline officers also need to have the right kit, training, tactics and, crucially, leaders who are properly command trained.

There is an excellent Army saying – that there are no bad troops, only bad commanders. This is also true for our police. We need to see much more cooperation between police forces and national and international security agencies.

There should be much more effort put into this and our regional crime agency needs to be reinforced and given the technical research funding to continue to give our police the edge over professional, organised criminal networks.

These gangs ruin lives – not just of the drug users but their families and in the wider communities infected by the virus of criminality which the gangs spread.

We need to see a much more vigorous effort put into the war against organised crime.

Last week was a good start, but there is much more to be done.

Mark Shelford Conservative candidate for Police and Crime Commissioner in Avon and Somerset