Suspected drug dealer's phone used by Nottinghamshire Police to send texts
Hundreds of texts have been sent to the contacts of a suspected county lines drug dealer from Nottinghamshire Police.
The phone was recovered during a raid in Bestwood after the dealer was arrested for conspiracy to supply class A dugs.
Officers found that more than one hundred contacts were receiving SMS marketing updates from the drugs line, relating to the network that is supplying heroin and crack cocaine across Nottinghamshire.
What is 'county lines'?
County lines is used to describe criminal gangs who move drugs from cities to rural areas and sell them through a dedicated phone line.
It often involves children and vulnerable adults who are recruited and exploited by the gangs.
Now officers are sending their own messages to the contacts, letting them know that their phone number has been in contact with a county lines phone and offering support and services.
They say they want to help customers break their addictions.
Five men were detained during the raid and they have been released under investigation, while the force says it hopes to make more arrests over the next couple of weeks.
Detective Inspector Paul Lefford hopes it will allow the force to reach out to hundreds of people and stop drug dealings in the county.
He says it's "crucial" for the force to come up with different ways to start conversations with vulnerable, drug dependent people.
"It's important to reach out to people not only to support them, but by helping them stop their drug abuse, we would see fewer people commit crimes to feed their habit and prevent crime before it happens", he adds.
The idea is a joint partnership between the Nottinghamshire Violence Reduction Unit, Cleanslate, Change Grow Live and Nottinghamshire Police.
The Nottinghamshire Violence Reduction Unit says it has created the HashtagNG campaign to engage more young people to get help and support with drug abuse, serious violence and exploitation.
Unit director Dave Wakelin says 180 thousand people in Nottinghamshire have now accessed the resources, either for themselves, their friends or their family members.
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