In a week-long crackdown on County Lines gangs, police officers in Leicestershire seized cash, drugs and weapons, including a homemade stun gun. 42 people were arrested during the operation and 25 safeguarding visits were made.

Trevor Dowling, aged 42, has been jailed for eight years after being convicted of robbery and possession of an imitation firearm, and pleading guilty to theft of a motor vehicle. In August 2022, Dowling stole a delivery driver’s vehicle before driving it to a remote rural post office in Pirton, Hertfordshire where he pressed a BB gun to a worker’s abdomen and stole £300. When police arrested Dowling at his home in Leeds, they found the gun used in the attack hidden under the mattress of a bed belonging to one of his children. The court heard that that Dowling’s victim had to leave her job and suffers night terrors.

During a crackdown on drug crimes in Wiltshire, police officers arrested 31 people and seized drugs, cash and weapons including two real guns, an imitation gun, several knives, a set of nunchucks and a Samurai sword. Officers also safeguarded three missing children who had been exploited to run drugs.

Armed police officers responded after one man allegedly threatened another with a gun during an altercation in Bournemouth, Dorset. No arrests have yet been made. It is believed the men were known to each other.

During a County lines crackdown in Shropshire, police officers arrested 22 people and seized weapons, including pistols and knives, and more than £300,000 worth of drugs. Click on media link to read full report.

Armed police officers responded after patrol officers spotted a suspected firearm being used to prop open the window of a property in Gloucester, Gloucestershire. A police spokesperson later said that it was believed to be a deactivated weapon.

Following reports that a teenager was carrying a firearm on a school bus, armed police officers stopped the vehicle in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire and found him with a cap gun. The youth was given words of advice and handed over to school staff. Police spokesperson later said, “I’d like to remind people that it is an offence to possess an imitation firearm in a public place, and anyone found in possession of one could face a criminal record.”

Armed police were deployed following reports of a man “waving a gun” on a street in Stoke, Staffordshire. A weapon was recovered and the man was arrested on suspicion of possessing an imitation firearm in a public place.

Daniel Nowek, aged 31, will be detained at a psychiatric institution for seven years after pleading guilty to possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, possession of a prohibited firearm and possession of a Class A drug. In October 2020, Nowek donned a mask and fired four shots towards an occupied house in Bierley, West Yorkshire, with one bullet going through a kitchen window and embedding itself in an inside wall. Other shots damaged brickwork and a wooden porch. The court heard that the shooting had possibly been intended to frighten someone who wasn't in the house at the time. Gunshot residue linked Nowek to the pistol discharge and circumstantial evidence suggested he was connected to organised drug criminals. Police officers subsequently recovered a Russian 9mm Makarov semi-automatic pistol and a Turkish 4mm EKOL miniature revolver from another property in the town and tests proved the pistol had been used in the attack. Nowek’s DNA was also found on the revolver’s hammer, grips and trigger. Nowek was seen moving cannabis plants before the shooting and more than 200 ecstasy tablets were found at an address linked to him in London after the attack. Nowek suffers from paranoid schizophrenia but will be moved to prison if his mental condition improves.

Police officers Tasered and arrested a man in Watford, Hertfordshire following a report of an assault earlier in the day. The man, who injured himself with a sharp object when confronted by the officers, was detained under the Mental Health Act.