Police storm addresses across Portsmouth and Havant following intelligence over drug dealing, as The News joins raid

Officers executed drugs warrants across Portsmouth and Havant resulting in a 26-year-old man and 19-year-old woman, both from Portsmouth, being arrested at an address on All Saints Road, Portsmouth.

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The man was arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of Class A and Class B drugs. He is currently in custody. The woman was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to supply a Class A drug.

Phones and cash were seized from the address. Yesterday’s warrants come following intelligence regarding drug supply across Havant and Portsmouth.

Another raid was carried out in Halstead Road, Cosham, which was attended by The News. Officers smashed through the door before checking the premises - before discovering their intended target was at another location where he was arrested.

A police spokeswoman said: ‘We have arrested a 26-year-old man from Portsmouth on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of Class A and Class B drugs. He is currently in custody. We have also arrested a 19-year-old woman from Portsmouth on suspicion of conspiracy to supply a controlled Class A drug.

‘Phones and cash have been seized so far from the All Saints Road address. These warrants come following intelligence regarding drug supply across Havant and Portsmouth.’

Det Con Moe Zolanvar, of the Eastern Criminal Investigation Department, said: ‘This was a drugs warrant we executed where we searched the property and as part of that a person was arrested on suspicion on being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs.

‘He wasn’t at the address here today but was at another address where another warrant was executed and was arrested there. We will now interview the man having carried out searches of the property.

‘The drugs involved were cocaine and crack cocaine. We’re going to carry out a search but we don’t know what we are going to find.’

Speaking of preparations for the raid, he added: ‘It takes a lot of planning because resources are something we have to take into consideration. A huge amount of consideration is given to who’s going to be at the address, do they have any vulnerabilities, what’s the impact of us entering as we did. Once all that is done things move pretty swiftly. (The raids) are going quite well.’

Det Con Zolanvar said the offender was linked to a number of local drug lines but these can be fed by county lines. ‘There’s going to be an investigation. At the moment it is just an allegation. We don’t always get it right. Based on our searches and what we find we will put any evidence to him,’ he said.

Asked about concerns of weapons when carrying out raids, he added: ‘There’s always concerns over weapons which is why officers have extra protection. If we have any information regarding firearms that would be a next level up of firearms officers.’

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