Bedfordshire Drug Gang Busted and Jailed in County Lines Crackdown
Three men have been jailed after being caught running a ruthless county lines drug operation across Bedfordshire and Cambridge. Louis Gerrard, 25, and Arjun Singh, 25, both landed six-year sentences at Luton Crown Court for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs. Louis Chedworth, 34, got three years for the same offence.
Phone Evidence Exposed County Lines Network
The trio were hauled in following a series of police raids across Bedford in March that seized drugs and mobiles. Clever phone forensics uncovered text messages offering Class A drugs and pinpointed their movements, linking them to a county lines network dealing between Bedford and Cambridge.
Singh was nabbed in Cambridge in October 2019 with multiple wraps of Class A drugs. Chedworth was arrested in Hertfordshire two months later, caught with 39 wraps of cocaine and eight of heroin.
Young People Exploited to Push Drugs
County lines gangs often use young people to courier and sell drugs, a nasty form of exploitation. Gerrard and Singh’s sentences were toughened because of their roles in grooming youths into the trade.
“These gangs are often linked to serious violence and intimidation, grooming and exploiting young people to run drug dealing networks across the country,” said Bedfordshire Police.
Police Set To Clamp Down Further With New Orders
Bedfordshire Police plan to slap a slavery and trafficking prevention order on the criminals to keep them under tight conditions and stop further harm. They’ll also push for a drug dealing telecommunications restriction order (DDTRO) to cut off the phones used in the crime, shutting down their communication lines.
