Operation Artemis hits the Cleveland Police force area

Cleveland Police joined forced with the National Crime Agency and the North East Regional Organised Crime Unit to take the fight the gangs who are blighting their communities.

Addresses across all four force areas – Middlesbrough, Stockton, Hartlepool, and Redcar and Cleveland, were targeted during a co-ordinated series of raids.

Scores of officers flooded the streets looking for suspects involved in serious criminal behaviour such as county lines drugs operations and human trafficking.

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Detective Chief Superintendent John Bent, of Cleveland Police, outlined the importance of the operation to residents whose lives are affected by daily criminal activity in their communities.

He said: “This month’s raids are very much featured on serious and organised crime, so we have done a series of warrants all surrounding people who are involved in it.

“Serious and organised crime manifests itself in a number of different ways, drugs markets are particularly prevalent on Teesside but we also have human trafficking, exploitation, and county lines - unfortunately all of those things take place here.

“There are people who are benefitting, making a lot of money out of the misery of others.”

Officers smashing their way into a property on Grove Hill in Middlesbrough (Image: Newsquest)

In Stockton, officers targeted properties in Stockton in the early hours and arrested six people for offences relating to conspiracy to supply drugs. A vulnerable woman has also been safeguarded.

Across the river in Middlesbrough, a man and a woman have been arrested after officers conducted a warrant at an address in The Close, Grove Hill. They were both arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply Class A drugs.

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A man was arrested in Grangetown this morning on suspicion of assault.

While back in Stockton, a man arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply Class A drugs on Bowesfield Lane, Stockton.

A woman being arrested following a raid in Grove Hill, Middlesbrough (Image: Cleveland Police)

And a woman was later arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply Class A, B, and C drugs and possession of criminal property following the execution of the same warrant.

Det Chief Supt Bent added: “We get great support from the communities, we get intelligence coming in which lends itself to doing operations like this because they let us know who and where, which supplements the intelligence we have as a force.”