I went on police raid in quiet street as cops hit vile ‘cuckoo’ drug den… the depravity I saw inside left me horrified

AS wake up calls go it is certainly effective.

Just before dawn in a sleepy neighbourhood in Bolton a loud bang is heard followed  by shouts of “police”.

Andy Kelvin / Kelvin MediaGreater Manchester Police carried out a dawn raid on a house ‘cuckooed’ by a ‘county lines’ drug dealer[/caption]

Andy Kelvin / Kelvin MediaCops arrest a man on suspicion of supplying Class A drugs[/caption]

Andy Kelvin / Kelvin MediaThe suspect was bundled into a waiting van as neighbours watched on[/caption]

Andy Kelvin / Kelvin MediaThe inside of the home that the suspected county lines drug dealer gained access to[/caption]

Twelve boys in blue have marched up the road past well manicured lawns, scanning the rows of bungalows until they found the one they were after.

The group then split into two, half covering the back door, the rest at the front – then “boom”, they smash their way into the house.

Within seconds, the entire team is inside, much to the surprise of the occupants who are still in their beds.

In the living room, the homeowner and his girlfriend are squashed together bedded down on a dirty sofa.

But these are not the people the cops are looking for.

One of the cops rings a number – a “county lines” drug dealer hotline – and he hears it buzzing in the upstairs dormer.

Upon entering the room, the phone is buzzing as it charges on top of a bookshelf.

A man, who is in bed with his girlfriend, quickly admits it is his.

Moments later he is put into handcuffs, arrested for the supply of Class A drugs and bundled into a waiting van outside as neighbours watch, mouths open.

Other cops now  search the filthy property to see if any Class A’s are hidden.

All four people they found admitted to being drug users, and foil wraps used for smoking crack cocaine can be seen littered in every room.

Cigarette butts are lying all around and mould can be seen growing up the walls and on the blinds and curtains.

This convoy of cops are here working on intelligence that the arrested man was allegedly running a county lines drugs operation selling heroin and crack cocaine.

Greater Manchester Police invited The Sun along on yesterday’s raid to see shed light on the battle to smash the county lines dealers blighting Britain.

Police Constable Andy Shaw, a member of Greater Manchester Police’s dedicated County Lines team, told The Sun: “Thanks to intelligence we’ve been able to move on this line pretty fast.

“It’s been supplying Bolton since December. We’ve been able to recover the phone and the person running the line today.”

Today’s bust is also the latest terrifying example of so-called “cuckooing” – a sinister tactic used by dealers where violence, drugs and manipulation are used to gain access to a vulnerable person’s home.

‘Cuckooing is vile’

Police believe that the owner of the house, a young man, has been “cuckooed” by the drug dealer.

PC Shaw, said: “There’s other people inside that we believe have been cuckooed by the gang.

Andy Kelvin / Kelvin MediaThe cops are working on intelligence that the arrested man was allegedly running a county lines drugs operation selling heroin and crack cocaine[/caption]

Andy Kelvin / Kelvin MediaCigarette butts are lying all around alongside foil wraps used for smoking crack cocaine[/caption]

“Cuckooing is vile and it is at the forefront of drug dealing.

“[Dealers] come to somebody’s address, and they’ll take it over, and the person that resides at the address has got absolutely no choice.

“They can’t say no, the threatened, the coerced, the vulnerable, the sometimes fed drugs, and they just feel like they can’t say no to these people.”

But while they are dedicate to smashing the gangs, PC Shaw insisted that police are not just here to arrest the bad guys – but also help those who have been drawn into their web

He said: “We’re not here to just put people in prison, victims need to be helped and we’ll help them.”

But keeping up with the dealers can be hard.

PC Shaw added: “We are getting wise to tactics now so they’ll try different tactics themselves.

“They’ll keep drugs at different addresses to the phones, or in cars.

“But every time they change, so do we. We’ll take every action possible, we need to.”

And Greater Manchester Police are having some success.

Since September 2022, the force have seized 108kg of Class A and B drugs, and seen 366 arrests, of which 304 have been charged.

From the convictions, criminals have been thrown behind bars for a combined 749 years while 397  lines have been shut down.

Cuckooing has now become a major focus of Britain’s police forces and the government is planning to make cuckooing, along with child criminal exploitation, a criminal offences in its own right.

It forms part of the Crime and Policing Bill which is due to be introduced into Parliament this week.

‘Sickening’

Announcing the bill, Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, said: “The exploitation of children and vulnerable people for criminal gain is sickening and it is vital we do everything in our power to eradicate it from our streets.

“As part of our Plan for Change, we are introducing these two offences to properly punish those who prey on them, ensure victims are properly protected and prevent these often-hidden crimes from occurring in the first place.”

Currently police have to rely on modern slavery laws to take action against crooks who target vulnerable people – meaning it can be hard to get any kind of conviction for the harm caused to victims.

In recent years, cuckooing was given national prominence when it featured in Line of Duty where Terry Boyle, a vulnerable character with Down Syndrome, was exploited by a gang.

They used his flat to murder journalist Gail Vella and set him up to take the fall for her murder, with PC Ryan Pilkington reminding him they’re “best mates” and all will be fine if Terry keeps his “mouth shut” in interview.

It has also featured in police drama Luther and US show Fargo.

Victims of cuckooing have revealed the sinister tactics used by gangs to lure them in.

Chloe, not her real name, a victim of cuckooing in Wiltshire, spent decades being used and abused by criminals in her own home.

The 48-year-old said she ran away from her abusive family, turned to prostitution and started smoking crack cocaine as a young teenager.

Decades later, she met a man who she believed loved her, but he turned her home into a drug den.

She said: “He was a charmer and I thought he was going to make my life better.

“But he didn’t even like me, let alone love me.

“Over the years I bared my soul to him and by the end of it he was cracking my head open and letting me get raped.

“He would get phone calls from friends asking to stay and I’d say yes.

“The men who arrived were as young as 18 or 19 and came from everywhere including Birmingham, London, and Gloucester.

“In return for them using my house, I got a £10 stone of crack.

“If I argued back, they would sexually assault me and smash up my house, or they shovelled drugs down my neck, so I didn’t have a chance to be sober and think ‘this is not right’.

“The crack made me vulnerable. I couldn’t focus. They knew exactly what they were doing.

“I spent years like that. They don’t care if they kill you.”

PC Shaw is determined to stamp it out on his patch.

He said: “We’ve done some really good work over the last 12 months.

“We’ve closed over 160 drug lines down throughout Greater Manchester.

“We’re putting a lot of people in prison. We’re getting rid of a lot of drug dealers that are on the streets.”

Line of Duty’s Terry Boyle, a vulnerable character with Down Syndrome, was exploited by a gang on the series

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