A specialist team combining Merseyside Police and National Crime Agency officers says investigations completed during its first five years led to 108 offenders receiving a combined 851 years in prison.
The Merseyside Organised Crime Partnership published the results on July 29. The figures cover offenders jailed between the unit’s formation in April 2021 and March 2026, rather than a single raid or court case.
Drugs, firearms and criminal assets
The partnership reported seizing cocaine, heroin, cannabis and ketamine valued at up to £70 million. It also said 33 firearms were removed from circulation and £1.8 million in criminal cash was forfeited.
A further £51 million in alleged criminal benefit is subject to confiscation proceedings. That distinction matters: money already forfeited has passed through a legal process, while assets in ongoing proceedings have not necessarily been finally recovered.
Cases ranged across the supply chain
Examples listed by the NCA include a group that operated a round-the-clock cocaine delivery service marketed to about 9,000 contacts, a man stopped with what authorities described as the United Kingdom’s largest single ketamine seizure and a plot to import a tonne of cocaine through Liverpool.
Other cases involved a loaded firearm recovered from a taxi and a family network that traded heroin, cannabis and cocaine. The range shows how an organised-crime unit can connect street distribution with wholesale trafficking, weapons and money laundering.
Why the partnership model matters
Local police understand neighbourhoods, repeat offenders and the immediate effects of drug markets. A national agency can add specialist surveillance, financial investigation and international links. Combining those capabilities is intended to reduce the gaps criminal groups exploit when activity crosses force or national boundaries.
The partnership also works with Merseyside Police teams focused on disruption and firearms, as well as agencies elsewhere in Britain and abroad. That structure is especially relevant for Liverpool because drugs may arrive through international routes before being distributed far beyond the city.
How to interpret the headline numbers
The 851-year total is the sum of sentences across many defendants and cases. It does not mean one investigation produced a single sentence of that length, and it should not obscure differences in each defendant’s conduct.
The more useful measures over time will be whether violence falls, whether replacement networks are prevented from taking over and how much criminal wealth is ultimately recovered. Arrests and seizures are significant, but lasting disruption depends on what happens after them.
Source: National Crime Agency report on the Merseyside partnership. Photo: National Crime Agency, reproduced for reporting this specific story under the NCA’s image-use terms.
Sources
Edin Pula
Edin Pula is the editor responsible for reviewing and publishing content at Smashology Media. He oversees sourcing, fact-checking, corrections, and editorial standards across coverage of internet culture, technology, entertainment, news, and crime.
