IT WAS a no-brainer when I got the invite to watch Sussex Police raiding several properties suspected of being involved with county line drug dealing as part of Operation Centurion.
The only detail I had was that I needed to be at Eastbourne Police Station in Hammonds Drive for 4.30am on Wednesday, May 4.
Upon arrival at the police station, there was a quiet buzz as police vans were loaded and officers got ready to raid several properties in Sussex.
We did not get to attend the briefing beforehand so it came as a surprise when officers emerged and announced we were going to Hastings, a 30-minute drive away.
As expected, it was a calm journey. The officers who had drawn the short straw of having to lug the journo about were very kind. We chatted about football, the copious amounts of paperwork officers have to undertake and much more.
There was a brief meet-up at a deserted petrol station near the target house before go time.
We arrived at the property in Hastings for 5.30am before the group of about six officers in riot gear rushed out the van with a ram.
It was not like the TV shows where two swings of the ram smash the door down. It took seven swings before the door flew open and officers piled in shouting “police!”. They certainly woke up the whole street.
Four arrests were made at the house I visited as part of a county line drugs raid of 19 properties in Eastbourne, Hastings and London.
The operation, which also involved the Metropolitan Police and Surrey Police, led to 18 arrests on suspicion of involvement in the supply of class A drugs.
Around 5,000 wraps of crack cocaine and heroin were seized during the raids, as well as seven kilograms of cocaine, two kilograms of heroin, £300,000 in cash and four phones suspected of being used in the running of county drugs lines between Sussex, Surrey and Norwich.
Afterwards, I was driven back by the two officers, who were actually based in Brighton, and we discussed our excitement at getting a Mcdonald's breakfast.
For me, it was straight off to Hove for another story in what ended up being a 14-hour day, while the officers were headed up to Heathrow to drop evidence off.
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