Dear Resident,

Over the past few weeks we've been tackling illegal drugs and exploitation across Cambridgeshire.

Operation Hypernova 2 is the culmination of months of intelligence and partnership working in a bid to make the county hostile towards county lines drugs dealers, prevent further exploitation of young and vulnerable people and reduce serious street-based violence.

The operation, which is the biggest of its kind in the county, has resulted in 60 arrests with 33 of those being charged with 93 drug and human trafficking offences.

Officers carried out more than 30 dawns raids over recent weeks across Cambridge, Peterborough, Yaxley, Great Paxton, Burwell and Little Wilbraham as well as over the borders in Bedford, Dunstable, Luton, Northampton, Crowland, Leicester, Sheffield, Rotherham, Sheffield, Teesside, Coventry and London.

Fifty-one county lines have been dismantled with crack cocaine, cocaine, heroin and cannabis seized along with £45,000 in cash and other assets. Further lines have been disrupted.

Several weapons including zombie knives, machetes, knuckle dusters and imitation firearms have also been seized.

See the team in action on this video.

The proactive work was carried out with support from the Metropolitan Police’ Orochi Team, the Eastern Regional Specialist Operation Unit (ERSOU), British Transport Police to identify those individuals posing the greatest threat to the community. 

Although these intensification weeks have come to an end, our work to gather intelligence continues daily and we will continue to knock on doors, make arrests and disrupt county lines drug dealing in Cambridgeshire. However, we can’t do this alone. We need you, Resident, members of our community, your intelligence and your concerns reported to us to continue to make our communities and indeed the county a hostile place for county lines.

If you've got any information you can share with us, please do so via this link.

Detective Inspector Andrew Gaunt-Warner

Intelligence and Specialist Crime Department.