FORENSIC tests are being performed on suspected class A drugs as a senior detective warns would-be dealers they will have nowhere to hide if they come to Worcester.
In dramatic scenes yesterday (Monday), officers swooped on suspected dealers in a strike against a car parked in the Sherriff Street Industrial Estate.
READ MORE: Sherriff Street drugs strike - detective finds class A
READ MORE: Three arrested in Sherriff Street over alleged drug dealing
Three suspects, one aged 18 and the other two aged 20, from the West Midlands have now been bailed as forensic tests on the drugs, believed to be heroin and crack cocaine, are now underway.
Meanwhile, one of the city's senior detectives says West Mercia Police continues to sever the supply lines involving drugs.
Stopping County Lines dealers remains one of the top priorities for South Worcestershire Proactive CID.
Officers dismantled parts of a silver Volkswagen Golf with an experienced detective pulling out a large bag of suspected drugs from the roof lining.
DI Dave Knight of South Worcestershire Proactive CID said: "Wherever a suspect hides their drugs we will find them, with sniffer dogs, strip searches or by taking their cars apart."
Officers shouted 'there's two in the back!' and 'hands, hands!' as the three suspects were quickly surrounded, plain clothes and uniformed officers rushing in to handcuff the suspects and prevent the loss - or hurried disposal - of any evidence.
Some officers had glass hammers for cracking their way into the car.
DI Knight said that drugs 'bring misery to the people of Worcester' and repeated his team's commitment to put the dealers out of business.
A search of the car began and the drugs were ultimately found in the roof lining after veteran West Mercia officer, DC Alex Pullen, followed a hunch and pulled out a bag containing the drugs.
A suspected dealer line phone - the mobile believed to be used to organise and advertise the sale of drugs - has also been seized.
Now that phone will be interrogated in the hope it can provide evidence in the ongoing case.
The arrests were made in what is now effectively a building site for the £150 million Sherriff Gate project, a symbol for many of a dynamic, revitalised city.
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