Every small battle takes police closer to victory

To win a war you must fight every battle, big and small, so that, bit by bit, you edge your way to victory. So it is with the war on drugs, and Hampshire Constabulary are to be congratulated on their latest triumph.

In a county-wide operation to disrupt drug dealing they have seized £47,000 in cash and more than two kilos of drugs – as well as a ‘large haul’ in Gosport.

The target is the so-called county lines network.

This is the phenomenon in which illegal drugs are transported from one area to another, often across police and local authority boundaries, often by children or vulnerable people who are coerced into it by gangs.

The ‘county line’ is the mobile phone line used to take the orders for drugs.

Police say importing areas (areas where the drugs are taken to) are reporting increased levels of violence and weapons-related crimes as a result of this trend.

This is organised crime on a huge, multi-million-pound scale, so the latest operation might be seen as a drop in the ocean — but this is a war the police must fight for the sake of all our children, and society at large.

The dealers will frequently target children and adults — often with mental health or addiction problems — to act as drug runners or move cash so they can stay under the radar of law enforcement.

In some cases the dealers will take over a local property, normally belonging to a vulnerable person, and use it to operate their criminal activity from.

This is known as cuckooing.

We regularly report on court cases related to county lines dealing where the defendants are actually victims of the criminal system.

It is reassuring to know that the police are relentless in their pursuit of the true villains — the cynical, parasitical, and, doubtless, wealthy, masterminds.

Every battle won is a step closer to victory in this war.