Bedfordshire police given £6.3 million to tackle organised crime
The money will combat drugs, violence and exploitation
Bedfordshire Police is set to receive millions of pounds of extra funding to combat drugs, violence and exploitation.
The £6.3 million funding awarded by the Home Office will directly support operations specifically set-up to tackle organised criminal activity and gang violence in Bedfordshire.
The funding will be given to the Boson team, which leads the response to guns and gangs in the county and to Operation Costello, launched in 2020 to target serious and organised crime.
Specialist officers from the team patrol hotspot areas for drug dealing and serious violence.
Detective Superintendent Dani Bailey is the director of intelligence for Bedfordshire Police.
"The funding that's been awarded for Boson and Costello is really going to help us to achieve and it sends a really clear message to the criminals of Bedfordshire that we won't stop coming after you," Det Supt Bailey said.
The funding is significant because the Bedfordshire force have issues dealing with crime in urban areas, as they're funded as a 'rural' force.
"The money addresses the unique challenges over the recent years that we've faced as a county," she said "through the investment over the last few years we've really been able to show that we can deliver.
"Within Costello we've achieved 119 arrests with 36 people jailed for a total of 258 years to date, and almost 20 kilos of class A drugs and 64 kilos of cannabis.
"The money will really help us to build on that."
Bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner Festus Akinbusoye said: “This is a major boost for our ongoing work to tackle organised crime and disrupt county lines activity in our county.
“The threats these gangs present to our villages, market towns, and urban areas is of serious concern to me, which is why I continue to make this funding bid to the government.
“Whilst this special grant is not a permanent funding arrangement, it is however an acknowledgement of the unique situation we face in Bedfordshire by the government.”