Arrests after 'industrial scale' drugs laboratories found

Eight people have been arrested on Merseyside by police investigating the discovery of alleged drugs laboratories "on an industrial scale".

Officers from the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit (NWROCU) executed 10 arrest warrants in dawn raids on Wednesday at residential properties across the region. Suspects were held on suspicion of the production of, and conspiracy to supply, class A and B drugs, as part of what is believed to be one of the biggest operations of its kind ever seen in the UK.

At one address in Prescot, police used a saw to cut through the front door before arresting a 68-year-old man, who was escorted to a police van wearing shorts and with a jacket over his head, covering his face. The NWROCU began investigating two and a half years ago when police in South Wales detained a Liverpool-based suspect with an estimated £1m worth of amphetamines.

Warrants were carried out in April 2024 at industrial sites in Bootle and Huyton, with officers finding a tonne of suspected heroin adulterant at one and 550kg of what was believed to be cocaine adulterant at the other, Inspector Danny Murphy of Merseyside Police said. Detectives also found 80kg of amphetamine in a simultaneous raid on a suspected laboratory at a residential premises in St Helens.

Inspector Murphy said: "We think the laboratory set-ups and the industrial scale of it at the time, in 2023, was the biggest we've seen in the UK, so it's a big investigation, a very detailed one." Read more on Sky News:UK homes shaken by quake50%+ rise in flu casesUK moderators leave TikTok Mr Murphy said the organised crime group was suspected of transporting the drugs across the country in a multimillion-pound conspiracy. Those arrested are alleged to have been "significant players" and to have carried out a number of roles within the suspected criminal enterprise, including "cooking" the drugs and couriering across the country, as well as organising.

Mr Murphy said they believed drugs were imported to the country before being bulked out with adulterants in the labs, potentially making millions of pounds of profit for the gang..