"Project Adder" to tackle County Lines crime in Swansea Bay
UK Government funding for targeted policing and recovery services
Swansea Bay is one of five areas across the UK set to receive massive investment to help in the fight against County Lines crime.
It's because it has among the highest drug use rates in the UK.
For three years we've been reporting on the impact drug gangs from Liverpool, Birmingham and London are having on South Wales.
From trafficking young people here for sex work and to sell drugs to cuckooing vulnerable people in their own homes.
Today the UK Government's announcing a £148 million investment to cut crime and protect communities across the United Kingdom.
Swansea Bay is one of the areas receiving funding to pilot Project Adder which will combine targeted and tougher policing with enhanced treatment and recovery services.
The funding will allow the police to target local gang leaders driving the drugs trade while better helping people to recover from addictions.
"Cut the head off the snake"
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said:
“I am determined to cut crime and make our streets safer, which is why we are recruiting 20,000 more police officers, toughening sentences and making sure the police and prisons have the powers and tools they need to clamp down on criminals and stop reoffending.
“But it is clear that drugs are a serious driver of the violence which devastates communities and robs young lives. That is why we must take action to cut off supply and cut the head off the snake by tackling the criminal gangs which exploit young people.
“We must also help people to get off drugs in the first place and that is why we are launching Project Adder, a new, targeted approach which will ramp up local enforcement, while at the same time diverting more people into recovery, backed up by the largest investment in treatment in fifteen years.”
Care for released prisoners
As part of the package, £2.5 million will also be invested across the UK in providing continuity of care for prisoners on release to avoid this becoming a crisis point. The enhanced RECONNECT service supports offenders with complex needs to engage with and get the right treatment from mental health, substance misuse and other services, for up to a year after release.
The money will also support offenders into treatment upon release from prison and fund additional detox beds and the life-saving overdose medicine, naloxone.
The work follows the appointment In February 2019 of Professor Dame Carol Black to undertake an independent review of drugs.
Last year she provided detailed analysis of the challenges posed by drug supply and demand, including the ways in which drugs fuel serious violence.
The second part of her review launched in July 2020, focused on treatment, recovery and prevention, aimed at ensuring vulnerable people with substance misuse problems get the support they need to recover and turn their lives around in the community and in prison.
It will consider how treatment services can enable people with a drug dependency to achieve and sustain their recovery – spanning the wide range of support they may need, including with across mental health, housing, employment, and criminal justice agencies.
"Drugs drive crime"
Dame Carol Black said:
“Drug treatment has a vital role to play in helping people to come off drugs and thereby reduce crime, from minor acquisitive crime right through to homicide. The evidence for this is abundantly clear - drugs drive crime.
“I am therefore delighted to hear that the government is to invest an additional £80 million in drug treatment. This will assist local authorities to improve the services they deliver in this important area, in all their various aspects.”