A dedicated team of 50 officers seized heroin, crack-cocaine, swords, and e-bikes in a proactive evening of action tackling crime last night.

Using multiple resources and neighbourhood policing teams from surrounding areas, officers were out in force across Gorton, Abbey Hey, and Levenshulme to take proactive action against e-bikes and anti-social behaviour.

This included the use of our drone unit, marked and unmarked vehicles, and foot patrols, who operated in the areas from early afternoon until late in the evening.

Throughout the deployment, officers secured four arrests, stop-searched 30 individuals, seized 11 illegal e-bikes, and located numerous quantities of drugs.

This included heroin and crack-cocaine wraps, as well as multiple bags of cannabis, ranging in multiple weights and sizes. In addition, offensive weapons including two swords were recovered during the course of a house search.

The show-of-force came as part of continued action which has seen multiple arrests and dozens of illegal bikes seized in recent months. Officers regularly take a range of proactive action, in addition to monitoring and acting on intelligence received from within communities.

This includes Operation EagleEye, which has been operating in the Manchester area with drone resources for more than a year now – read more about that work here: Manchester Neighbourhood team seize 130 nuisance bikes in ongoing proactive drone operation | Greater Manchester Police

Inspector Zac Campbell, from GMP’s City of Manchester Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: “Yesterday saw a concentrated and direct policing effort to tackle issues that we know the public want to see dealt with. While the work is constantly ongoing, this was a dedicated day of action that clearly reminds criminals that we will never tolerate their actions.

“Working with neighbourhood teams across Manchester, in addition to specialist resources in the form of our drone unit, we were able to secure arrests, recover dangerous weapons, and harmful drugs.

“Drug dealing is something that can cause so many issues – from violence to exploitation – and taking those responsible off the street and taking the substances out of circulation goes a long way to providing safer communities.

“We will be continuing to take action wherever needed, and I would urge anyone with any issues across Manchester to get in touch with their local team. All intelligence is logged and helps us build cases against those who cause disruption to their areas.”