Displaying items by tag: Drugs

Over 200 police officers unleashed dawn raids at homes across Oxfordshire. Two men and three women, all from the Wantage area, were arrested on suspicion of modern slavery, money laundering, and tax evasion. After searching cars, sheds, and homes, the officers found expensive jewellery, large quantities of cash, and a suspected stolen JCB. Ten people were charged with drug supply offences following a series of county lines warrants executed by specialist crime officers in Enfield, Haringey, Croydon, Essex and Thames Valley. The warrants were the culmination of a 13-month long investigation targeting drug supply and associated violent crime in Norwich, and took place on Tuesday 28 July at residential addresses across London and surrounding counties. During the manhunt, officers found a number of vulnerable people affected by the organised crime network. Safeguarding measures are being implemented. See also

Five hours of prayer every day, soup kitchens, sharing the Gospel with street people, impromptu guitar jams, amazing beards in the world of a Franciscan friary  - all these are featured in a BBC documentary, Friars on a Mission (available for another 19 days on iPlayer). This unique insight into the simple and missional lifestyle of five Franciscan friars in Bradford has testimonies from them and those they have helped. Brother Benedict - who was once promiscuous and heavily involved in drugs before having a life-changing encounter with God - enthuses in a thick Mancunian accent, ‘I’ll always be raving for Manchester, but I’m raving for the Lord.’ Tony, a homeless man, adds, ‘If it wasn’t for the friars, there is a very good possibility I’d be dead.’ Warmth, humility, and joy - not to mention an infectious sense of humour - radiate from them all.

Wiltshire police have said a large-scale cannabis factory has been found in an underground former nuclear bunker with an estimated street value of £1m. The plants were seized in a midnight raid on Regional Government Headquarters Chilmark. Six men were arrested on suspicion of cannabis production in twenty rooms in the building, with almost every room converted for the wholesale production of cannabis plants.

Colombia has announced a crop substitution programme to eradicate the raw material for cocaine. The Farc rebel group relied on cocaine production to fund its insurgency and controlled much of the industry, but a joint programme between rebels and the government will offer farmers monthly payments if they voluntarily destroy their crops. They will also be offered loans and guidance about planting alternatives such as fruit trees and cacao. This was agreed as part of Colombia's peace accord, which was finally ratified in December. The government will invest $340m (£271m), which would benefit 50,000 families. The target is to destroy 100,000 hectares this year, to bring coca levels down. But the preferred strategy is winning over the estimated 64,000 peasant families dependent on the coca trade. ‘This is much more cost-efficient, and furthermore ensures that territories are transformed and people's lives are changed’, said a government representative.