Across the country last week, hundreds of criminals woke to the sound of their front doors splintering.
A metal battering ram known as “the big red key” was the first thing to enter their premises, followed by the scream of “Police!”, and officers with helmets and shields.
This was a punch into the organised distribution of class A drugs known as “county lines”, described as “one of our most exploitative criminal models” by the man who co-ordinated this UK-wide crackdown.
A total of 2,180 people were arrested but there were also nearly 800 children discovered who needed to be safeguarded; many are thought to have been exploited into selling drugs on the UK’s streets.
Sky News joined Hampshire Constabulary, along with their secret weapon, a police dog called Major, who can sniff out traces of cocaine and heroin even in a flat that reeked of cat faeces and weed.
After watching her door being smashed open, a woman was led away in handcuffs and at first glance around the neglected property there seemed little trace of the criminal gang police suspected of using it as a base to prepare and distribute drugs.
That was until a handgun was found in a drawer under the TV, one of 121 seized across the county, along with a bayonet and a machete.
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There was a set of scales for weighing drugs and, on the floor, a driving licence covered in white powder belonging to an Iranian man with a London address.
Evidence was bagged up and intelligence shared with officers in London. This intensive week of action, happening in forces across the country, is designed to act as a disruptive shock to organised criminals in the drug-dealing business.
Bodycam footage from other forces showed the discovery of cannabis farms, blocks of cocaine, large wads of money and on a raid in South Wales, a man trying to escape from his upstairs window wearing only his underpants.
Police also seized swords, a crossbow, a gold bar, a gold suitcase and gold teeth.
However, this nationwide week of action is one of many co-ordinated drugs busts that have gone before it – and the figures for arrests and the number of county lines closed, this time 335 across the UK, are remarkably similar to the numbers in previous operations.
Despite seizing 10,500 wraps of class A drugs, 15,000 cannabis plants and £1.5m in cash, there is a question over whether it makes much of a dent in this industry.
The key feature of county lines drug dealing is the use of dedicated and marketed deal phone lines, mostly for the supply of crack cocaine and heroin to addicts and often hand prepared and delivered by exploited children.
According to the National County Lines Coordination Centre the number of lines each year across the UK has risen, from 4,503 in 2020/21 to 6,544 in 2024/25, driven by an increased number of local lines being opened – lines that do not cross police borders.
However, with the increased threat of prosecution under modern slavery legislation, the number of children recorded as being used by these gangs has fallen, down 8% last year to 2,659.
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That runs alongside a drop in recorded knife crime and there was a 25% drop in hospital admissions for stabbings in the areas where large quantities of class A drugs originate.
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Paul Brogden, the Metropolitan Police commander who co-ordinated the week of action, told Sky News that county lines is stiil “one of our most exploitative criminal models, it’s men of violence and also getting children drawn into really awkward and difficult situations in terms of drug dealing”.
But there are encouraging signs, he said, such as “seeing the age at which children are involved in county lines go gradually up”.
“Levels of violence associated with county lines is down, homicide rates are down, gun offending is down, so these are some impacts of the county lines programme beyond just closure of drug dealing lines,” he added.
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These are all promising trends, and this will have been a bad week for some bad people – but where lines have been disrupted, it’s likely more will reopen. It’s a cycle of addiction and violence that is hard to break.
What’s more, criminals continue to evolve. Last year, there were only 89 social media lines reported; this year, that figure increased to 429.
