More than 100 people have now been arrested by Zephyr – the regional serious and organised crime fighting team from Avon and Somerset Police.
Since Zephyr began in 2010 more than 70 of those arrested have been charged and are going through the court process. The others remain on bail pending further enquiries.
The offences range from conspiracy to supply Class A dugs and money laundering to distraction burglary and firearms offences.
Zephyr work closely with neighbourhood teams across the country and the offenders are from across the region and beyond including Hampshire, London and the North.
Officers have seized more than 20kg’s of Class A drugs, 10kg’s of Class B drugs and more than 50kg’s of cutting agents commonly used by drug dealers to dilute substances and increase profits.
Weapons, fraudulent documentation and £220,000 in cash has also been recovered.
Zephyr is made up of officers and specialist staff from the five police forces of the south west – Avon and Somerset, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Devon and Cornwall and Dorset.
The team works closely the Borders Agency (UKBA), Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and Trading Standards.
Zephyr also has a financial investigation team which seeks to strip criminals of their assets and the money used to fund their luxury lifestyles.
So far officers have confiscated £3.5million and have £4.4million under restraint. There are 27 confiscation investigations currently ongoing.
In addition to investigating large scale drugs conspiracies, Zephyr officers have worked on murder investigations, the management of violent sex offenders and crime series’ affecting the region.
Head of Zephyr Superintendent Nigel Rock said: “These are fantastic results which demonstrate the impact Zephyr is already having in the South West and beyond.
“Over the past year we have disrupted several significant organised crime groups who have caused harm to our communities. As well as placing offenders before the courts we are using the confiscation legislation available to us to ensure that crime does not pay.
“Criminal groups are fluid, flexible and opportunistic and we will not allow them to destroy our communities. Public safety is of paramount importance to us. We want communities across the region to feel confident about coming forward to help identify these crime networks, secure in the knowledge that we’ll do something about it.”
You can report information to your local police team by calling 101 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
For more information on Zephyr visit www.zephyrsouthwest.com.
