Residents from the Swythamley estate were shocked out of their slumber early doors to the sound of bellowing police, a smashed door and crying teenagers. It came as police raided a house in their neighbourhood, one of six raids which formed a day of action by GMP’s Stockport division and saw the arrests of six ‘top tier’ names in the town’s criminal network.
The operation, carried out on Monday, is a year in the making and involves GMP's Violence Reduction Unit and the National Crime Agency.
It follows the discovery of key intelligence in September 2021, found after a ‘successful’ warrant tackling an organised crime group. Back then, the officers came away with a haul of £24k in cash and bags of cocaine and cannabis.
Along with their find were a number of mobile phones which were trawled through to unravel an organised crime network from street level dealers to wholesale buyers. Analysing this, officers came away with six suspects, five men aged between 19 and 28 and one woman in her 30s, all of them were arrested today.
During today’s coordinated raids across the town, GMP found a large batch of cocaine, cannabis and even a suspected illegal puppy farm with 14 suspected dangerous dogs hidden inside a home. The total value of the drugs taken off the street was estimated at more than £16,000.
Speaking of today’s find Detective Sergeant Lee Attenborough, of GMP Stockport's Challenger team, said: “It’s been really successful from our point of view this morning. We had six people in mind we’ve got all six of them detained today.
“We’ve got drugs at all but one of the addresses, class As and cannabis. Interestingly at one address we’ve got 12 suspected dangerous dogs, illegal breeds, they’re a bit of headache at the moment. So we’re seizing those.
“For us it’s clearly your standard operation, looking to tackle organised crime in Stockport, no stone left unturned and community reassurance as well.
“Today has been funded by the violence reduction unit, they’ve given us quite a lot of money to get this off the ground. Even though we’ve not got that sort of immediate charge and remand on the day, this is gonna hurt these guys.”
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