Exclusive
Moment police discover secret drugs stash in car during county lines gang blitz
10 August 2021, 10:19 | Updated: 11 August 2021, 06:21
Operation Pandilla: LBC accompany police on drugs ridealong
This is the moment LBC watched police busting a driver with a huge stash of cash and drugs hidden in a secret compartment under the gear stick.
LBC witnessed police pulling over a kitted out black Mercedes hatchback as part of the crackdown on county lines gangs.
Operation Pandilla was a three-day police blitz on gangs who are driving drugs and weapons into London.
LBC rode along as a black Mercedes was stopped by police where they found a “large amount of cash, large amount of drugs” and a phone hidden in a secret compartment under the gear box.
Police later revealed they found more than £800 in cash, four large bags of cannabis, 21 smaller pots of cannabis, pills of various colours and several phones hidden in the car.
Exclusive: LBC investigation: County lines gangs exploiting children as young as eight
Read more: Around 600 potential county lines identified in last year alone
An officer at the scene told LBC: “The whole inside of the car is filled with drugs, money and there was a phone hidden in the car."
Officers were also filmed opening up a velcro bag that contained several plastic canisters containing what appeared to be drugs.
A sniffer dog was then deployed to search the rest of the car.
LBC watched as a suspect was led away from the scene in handcuffs.
Read more: 1,100 arrested in national crackdown on county lines drug gangs
Read more: Police text 2,000 numbers on county lines drugs supply phone
County lines gangs exploiting children as young as eight, LBC finds
Police used number plate recognition technology to stop vehicles “linked to drugs and county lines”.
Officers were also monitoring for suspicious activity as part of the crackdown on violent crime.
More than 250 officers from forces in Surrey, Thames Valley, Kent, Hertfordshire, City of London and Essex worked on the operation.
Afterwards, police made 46 arrests in London for offences including possession of an offensive weapon and possession with intent to supply class A drugs. They also seized 10 weapons off the streets.
