Drug dealers using grandparents' homes to store drugs and weapons in Broxtowe area

Police have executed an increasing number of warrants at grandparents’ homes in the Broxtowe, Aspley and Bilborough area.

They are now warning grandparents and parents that they could find themselves in trouble if they are knowingly facilitating a family members drug dealing activities.

Police have found substantial amounts of heroin, crack cocaine, machetes, large quantities of cash, and even cannabis grows in grandparents’ houses over the last six months.

A grandmother in her 70s from the Aspley area has recently been charged with the conspiracy to supply cannabis.

Neighbourhood inspector Gordon Fenwick, from Nottinghamshire Police, said: “A lot of the warrants we are doing now are at grandparents and parents houses with drugs being dealt out of them.

“Firstly, I think naively drug dealers don’t think they will get caught if there are no drugs in their own homes and it won’t raise suspicions about their criminal behaviour. They are wrong.

“Some drug dealers don’t have fixed addresses and therefore use these homes as their drug dealing bases.

“Some of these drug dealers are obviously exploiting their grandparents and we’ve had cases where grandparents were unaware their grandkids were storing Class A drugs such as heroin and crack cocaine at the address. We will always support vulnerable people who find themselves exploited in this way.

“However, we are aware of some incidents where we have evidence such as mobile phones being used by grandparents to organise drug deals and they are very much part of the operation. This also includes cannabis grows actually being set up in their homes.

“The homes have also been used to store machetes and knives, and we have also found tens of thousands of pounds of cash.

“We have been told on occasion ‘they didn’t want to get their grandson in trouble and just got sucked into it.’

“No-one wants to see a grandmother or grandfather exploited or facing such serious charges by getting involved in this type of activity.

“But police officers are noticing that increasingly criminals seem to be using these addresses to commit their crimes from.

“We would urge them to consider the consequences before they do this.

“By doing so you could be involving them in criminal activities, and they could find themselves before the courts if it is proved they are involved in the operation of selling or cultivating drugs.”