The British Transport Police has said that a three-day operation in Lancashire saw eight people arrested for drug offences.

The operations took place from the 12th to the 14th of July and saw large amounts of heroin, crack cocaine and cannabis seized and eight people arrested in a bid to tackle drug supply in Lancashire.

Plain clothes and uniformed officers from both forces worked alongside drugs dogs onboard trains and at stations including Preston, Lancaster, Blackpool and Morecambe.

Alongside the arrests, officers also made four safeguarding interventions.

Detective Inspector Brian Buddo, of BTP’s County Lines Taskforce, said: “These operations are a fantastic example of joint working with our policing colleagues to pursue offenders.

“Our teams successfully intercepted harmful drugs before they reached our communities and made vital interventions to safeguard vulnerable people who may be at risk of exploitation.

“We carry out intelligence-led operations like these across the UK rail network every day to clampdown on county lines activity wherever it occurs. If you use the railway to move drugs between locations, we will catch you and put you before the courts.”

Inspector Kathryn Riley of Lancashire Police’s West Intelligence Unit said: “County Lines is an increasingly significant threat, both nationally and locally within Lancashire, and operations such as these work well to disrupt the movement of drugs into our communities.

“It was hugely beneficial to work alongside our policing colleagues at BTP – this is just one of the operations that we conduct to rid Lancashire of drugs and the dangers they carry.

“I am particularly pleased with a number of safeguarding interventions that occurred where vulnerable children were identified and offered support. Safeguarding of vulnerable persons involved in County lines was the main objective of the operation.”

The British Transport County Lines Taskforce was put together in December 2019 with funding provided by the Home Office. The Taskforce aims to disrupt and apprehend criminals making use of the rail network to transport drugs around England, Scotland and Wales alongside the safeguarding of vulnerable children and adults who are being exploited in this activity.

So far the Taskforce has seen the arrest of 1,800 people, seized 1,200 lots of drugs and £1 million in cash as well as the removal of 450 dangerous weapons from the railway. The Taskforce has also seen the referral and 100 vulnerable people into the National Referral Mechanism for Safeguarding whilst seeing 20 charges made under the Modern Slavery Act (2015).