UK: Hilarious costume Cambs police officer dressed in to catch drug dealers

A Cambridge cop dressed up as a crocodile in a cunning attempt to catch a local criminal.

Officers had been trying to access a property known to be used by county lines dealers.

Recalling the incident Sergeant Paul Street, who leads one of Cambridgeshire Police’s Neighbourhood Support Teams, said: “We knew this particular house never answered the door to anybody.

“So what we did was we dressed an officer up in a crocodile outfit and we gave them a charity bucket and we sent them door-to-door knocking as if they were raising money for charity.

“They got to the front door of this location the drug addict inside the house opened the front door.

“[They] thought it was absolutely hilarious there was a crocodile at the front door asking for money and then all the police officers burst into their house and arrested the drug dealers inside.

“That’s one example of where you have to use ingenuity to go out there and get the right result we need to get.”

Sgt Street revealed the humorous incident during an interview about county lines drug-dealing in Cambridge.

The reality, however, is anything but funny with children as young as 12 understood to be pedalling crack cocaine and heroin on the city streets.

County lines drug dealing usually occurs when Class A drugs from large metropolitan areas, such as London and Birmingham, are smuggled by gangs into rural counties such as Cambridgeshire to be sold.

Police believe there are between 15 and 20 of such networks operating in the county at present.

“People see drug dealing as a victimless crime. What people don’t see is the gang wars that happen around drugs,” said Sgt Street.

“We’re not unrealistic and thinking we’ll solve drug supply in the city. But if we didn’t arrest the drug runners that we arrest the market will become saturated with drug dealers.

“What they end up doing is fighting over turf, they’ll start stabbing each other and they’ll start killing each other.

“I don’t think members of the public are in danger from this at all, but what we don’t want is young people getting stabbed.

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