TROUBLE IN PARADISE
NESTLED between the wilds of Bodmin Moor and Dartmoor National Park, Callington in Cornwall is considered one of the safest places in the country to live. So much so that when Devon and Cornwall Police chose to close the town’s police station and sell it to a funeral director as part of cuts in late 2015, there was little resistance from locals.
Traditionally, there has been an average of fewer than 10 crimes a week committed in the town, according to police.
But there are fears a replacement police base in the town hall may not be enough after Callington became one of the latest places to be struck by the “county lines” drug menace.
The town, which has a population of 5,700, could not be more different from the sink estates of cities where county lines gangs have masterminded the drug exporting routes that now crisscross the country.
However, even places such as Callington are no longer safe from the tentacles of these drug gangs, who exploit children and vulnerable adults by sending them to sell drugs in far-flung corners of the country using dedicated mobile phone hotlines.
In some cases gangs even take over the home of a local addict through intimidation and violence to use as a drugs den, in a sinister practice known as cuckooing. Despite clamping down on one gang that took over the home of a vulnerable addict in Callington, more are looking to move in.
Police also executed a drugs warrant at another home. A spokeswoman confirmed: “The warrant took place at a residential property in Callington on November 30 and remains under investigation, with inquires ongoing.”
Police support officer Joanne Addems said: “We are aware that an organised crime gang from London has started to target Callington.”
Inspector Lynden Hughes said there is intelligence of gangs trying to “cuckoo” other properties in the town. Police are trying to increase public awareness.
It was the town’s tight-knit community that saw off the first gang which began operating from a cuckooed premises in Tavistock Road in 2017.
In an unusual move one of the gang leaders, Aliki Mamwa, 25, originally from Tottenham, north London, spent much of his time at the Tavistock Road property and even gave it as his address to Truro Crown Court when he was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in December.
The investigation linked him to a network of county lines bringing drugs from London to towns in the east of Cornwall. Once in Callington, Mamwa got people to sell to addicts by bulk text messaging an established contacts list.
Prosecutors said Mamwa used the address as a drugs store and as a base to sell from.
A man in his 70s, who has lived in Callington for decades, said: “This had been unheard of round here but then they were talking about gangsters from London.”
Mamwa’s network spread to Saltash, a larger town nine miles to the south, where his right-hand man Dion Needs, 20, was based.
Needs was jailed for three years after admitting being concerned in the supply of crack cocaine and heroin. While vandalism and anti-