Drug seizures down

14 November 2018

Drugs seizures have fallen to their lowest level since 2004 which can be linked in part to falling numbers of officers, says West Midlands Federation chair Rich Cooke.

He was speaking after new Home Office figures revealed a decrease of two per cent in the overall seizures of drugs over the last year.

The Government statistics showed the police forces and the Border Force made a total of 135,728 seizures in England and Wales in 2017/18 compared to 139,019 the previous year.

This is the sixth consecutive annual fall and the lowest number of seizures since 2004, when there were 107,359 seizures, according to the Home Office report.

Cannabis was the most commonly seized drug, accounting for 72 per cent of all seizures. Cocaine was second in 11 per cent of all seizures.

The report references figures from the Crime Survey for England and Wales.

Full details will appear in the December/January edition of your Federation magazine.