Drugs a priority for police

He revealed that while the number of drug related arrests was up by 4.41%, the number of charges brought was down by 6.67% and that seizure incidents had also decreased, by 10.48%. He said: “We are very much encouraged by the fact that we have seen an increase in arrests over this reporting period which demonstrates our commitment to this crime type. We continue to rely very heavily on information received from the public about drugs and, whilst overall seizures are slightly down, we have had some notable successes acting on information from the public directly and through elected and community representatives. This includes a number of cannabis factories in the Ballymena and Larne areas yielding considerable quantities of drugs in one seizure.”