Cops nick the drug runners
Dealers’ expensive trainers taken
POLICE are confiscating young drug dealers’ designer trainers in the hope it will prove a costly deterrent.
Brands including Nike and Armani have been taken from peddlers, who are made to walk home in £1.85 black plimsolls.
More than 100 seized pairs costing up to 100 times that are now held by Wiltshire Police in Swindon and will be sold at the force’s Proceeds of Crime auctions. Det Con George Booth said: “Designer kit is a status symbol and these people hate it when we do this – but that’s a good thing.
“This sends a message that we deal robustly with anybody we think is buying items with drug money – including jewellery, phones and clothing.”
The trendy trainers were confiscated along with other designerwear and weapons including machetes.
All come from “county lines” drug gangs, so named because they use mobile phones to expand outside their area.
The activity exploits vulnerable youngsters and addicts. It affects most UK forces.
Sgt Georgia Green urged parents to watch out for telltale signs their offspring may be involved with drug pushers.
She said: “A child suddenly in possession of costly footwear they can’t account for is a big give-away.”