Regional Disruption Team

Working closely with UK Border Force Joint Borders Intelligence Unit (JBIU) and the Fast Parcel Multi-Agency Hub (FPMAH), the RDT develops and disseminates intelligence resulting from Fast Parcel seizures.

All of our regional forces have a Toolkit of Tactics developed by the RDT which provides advice and guidance and includes templates on how to respond to Fast Parcel seizures.

RDT assisted officers from Avon and Somerset Police working in partnership with Merseyside Police’s dedicated county lines drug dealing and child criminal exploitation team to identify and target county lines perpetrators.

These combined resources were able to tackle cross-border drugs supply and dealing which saw 15 people arrested, drugs with an estimated street value of £37,000 seized, along with £11k in cash and a range of weapons. Five drugs supply networks were disrupted and a number of vulnerable individuals safeguarded.

The RDT supported Dorset Police in response to a number of incidents of clandestine entry in the area over a period of 18 months. Basing themselves at transport hubs across the region, the team provided staff and intelligence as well as educational information to assist the operation.

In support of Sceptre, a national crackdown on knife crime, the RDT visited addresses in the South West following the seizure of illegal bladed weapons by UK Border Force.

The safeguarding visits educated the purchasers around the legislation and import of these items, with recipients issued with Cease and Desist letters informing them they could face prosecution if they attempt to import such weapons again.

The RDT utilises intelligence to identify trends in Fast Parcel Data in order to identify disruption opportunities to target organised criminality. Fast Parcels seized by Border Force can include many forms of commodities, broadly: drugs importations (all classes), weapons (including firearms) and cash/bullion.

UK Border Force intercepted a parcel from Jamaica containing bottles labelled as juice and syrups. When tested, the eight bottles of liquid – four 1 litre bottles and four 750ml bottles – confirmed the presence of cocaine. Once separated from the liquid, it was established that 5.5 kilos of cocaine could be retrieved from the shipment.

The Team adopted the investigation into the importation and a man from Dorset was jailed for four years and eight months.

The Team adopted an investigation into a couple from Wiltshire who were producing bogus ‘R39’ legal letters coated with spice and marked using fake solicitors’ stamps to send them in to prisons across the country.

The investigation revealed the pair were also sending drugs into prisons concealed inside prisoner property boxes and using visitors to carry the drugs who would pose as inmates’ wives and girlfriends. 

One of the perpetrators was sentenced for his role, however, his partner went on the run for several years until the RDT caught up her and in May she was sentenced to 13 years and eleven months.

 

In response to intelligence, the RDT investigated three men from Bristol who were promoting a ‘Deliveroo’ style cannabis service business called ‘The Smoke Shack’ which was serving hundreds of addresses across Bristol as well as sending drugs across the country by post.  

The men used brown sandwich bags to deliver the goods, with the postcode and cash or crypto amounts written on the outside of them. The bags would be used to deliver drugs and payment dropped into the bag in exchange.  

The men were sentenced in July this year.