REVEALED: How Wiltshire county lines intel helps tackle crime on a global scale

Wiltshire's Police and Crime Commissioner has been telling us our local intelligence helps tackle crime on a global scale.

It follows a week of intense action to break the chain of supply of drugs and knives into Wiltshire and across the South West as part of Operation Scorpion.

PCC Philip Wilkinson said the issue reaches far beyond our shores.

He said: "If we swim far enough upstream through those county lines, we probably get to hostile nations at at the top of them.

"For example, that the heroin market is now we, we are increasingly seeing synthetic opioids, which are generally made in China. These are up to 1000 times stronger than than the normal heroin."

These are illegally imported and funnelled through various criminal gang leaders until it reaches our streets, potentially ending up in the hands of our children.

The PCC told Greatest Hits Radio that the question police have to solve is how to infiltrate those networks.

Mr Wilkinson said: "We deal with it at a very local level through Wiltshire Police and the residents of Wiltshire, giving us the intelligence information so we can target our efforts.

"But this week I've been dealing with the National Crime Agency in terms of getting a better understanding. How do we make sure that everything that we do here is linked up with what they are doing as they're reaching into the international networks?"

The PCC is urging us to continue providing information to Police, as it supports the bigger picture and makes our own communities safer.

He said: "What we're dealing with here is the ends. If you like, of the tentacles that the county lines and we can have the successes that we have. So it's a joint effort. We need the intelligence so we can be more proactive."