Every year surfers and clubbers alike trek to a West Country seaside town that was once dubbed the "British Magaluf". Newquay, in Cornwall, attracts tourists from all over the world, famed for its impressive waves and huge selection of nightlife.
But now the beauty spot faces a dangerous drug epidemic. County lines gangs reportedly flood its shores with heroin, crack, cocaine and cannabis, reports the Mirror. Devon and Cornwall Police seized 18.7kg of cocaine in the year to March 2022 – up from 16.2kg the year before - while ketamine seized rose from 0.3kg in 2021 to 1.8kg last year, Home Office figures show.
And last week, a teenager a seizure in a Newquay nightclub during an event aimed at 16 and 17-year-olds, which police believe was "drug induced", The Sun reports.
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Raids were held across the town and nearby areas of St Austell, Truro and Penzance last month, in which 31 people were arrested. During the major crackdown on criminal gangs, police targeted a number of locations across the country as far away as Merseyside.
Dave Farrow, who moved from Norfolk to Newquay in 1983 and worked as a club doorman when the licensing laws changed to allow pubs to remain open into the early hours, said he has seen huge change in town.
"In those days people would often come out at 10pm or later, they’d be already drunk and wanting to party, and it would get quite messy. It was the party capital at that point and the streets were packed with groups of young people," Dave, who now runs Karma Surfboard shop, told The Sun.
"As a doorman I saw all sorts. I remember opening a toilet cubicle, the floor would be flooded in urine, but they’d be snorting cocaine and kneeling in it, because they were so out of it. Now the drug problem here is different. There are areas of Newquay which have become synonymous with drugs."
Stephen Walker, who owns the fishing and angling shop Sling Your Hook, says he has seen people taking drugs and doing drug deals on the streets of Newquay.
Alison Hernandez, police and crime commissioner for Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, said: "These operations will continue with my full support, which includes direct financial investment, so our communities and the dealers who seek to exploit our most vulnerable citizens understand that this evil trade will not be tolerated here."
The County Lines problem appeared quickly in around 2017, but now the National Crime Agency estimates more than half of the areas targeted by big city county lines dealers are coastal areas like Newquay.
The overall crime rate in Newquay in 2022 was 69 crimes per 1,000 people, which is 73 per cent higher than the county-wide average of 40 per 1,000 residents.
