Officers from five different forces have joined together to target those involved in County Lines from Merseyside into Lancashire, Cumbria and Scotland.

Yesterday (Tuesday, 25 February) Merseyside Police were supported by British Transport Police (BTP) as well as officers from Lancashire, Cumbria and Police Scotland and 46 people were arrested for various drugs offences.

Together they carried out raids at addresses of those believed to be involved in County Lines drugs supply, whilst at the same time targeting County Lines offenders using the railway, bus stations and the motorway network spanning from Merseyside to the Scottish borders. Police in Scotland were also on hand at Aberdeen Airport to bring offenders back down to earth and face the reality of their criminality.

Officers from the BTP specialist County Lines Taskforce were deployed at Liverpool Lime Street station, Wigan North Western station and Preston station as well as on board trains travelling up to Scotland.

Yesterday's operation, code named “Project Medusa”, is a Merseyside-led initiative, which saw 11 warrants executed across each of the four force areas (four in Merseyside (Stockbridge Village Old Swan, Netherton and Toxteth), five in Lancashire (Preston, Morecambe, Lancaster and Blackpool), one in Cumbria (Workington) and one in Scotland (Perth). Officers arrested 36 people on Merseyside; five from Lancashire; two in Cumbria and officers from British Transport Police arrested three people on the rail network.

Officers have also recovered significant quantities of Class A drugs, cash (more than £20,000 was recovered from one address in Liverpool) and phones. An imitation firearm was also recovered from an address in Lancashire.


The operation follows three successful Project Medusa operations conducted by Merseyside Police with other force areas including Cumbria, Cheshire, Staffordshire, Northumbria and North Wales where a number of arrests and seizures of drugs, weapons and mobile phones were carried out along with a number of stop searches.

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