As neighbours prepared for the commute from a north Liverpool estate just over a week ago, one teenager had an earlier start than expected.
The usual alarm clock was replaced by a team of specially assembled police officers who had burst down the door to the property and were quickly inside to carry out a search warrant. It was less than an hour from the raid being discussed at Tuebrook police station, the door going and a 16-year-old male being arrested and led to the back of a police van - the same one which had been moved away from a driveway moments earlier so a parent could take their children to school.
The exercise was part of national county lines intensification week, a country wide effort which saw numerous police forces targeting drug gangs. This raid in particular aimed to take out the ‘Anywhere Line’, an alleged Class A drugs operation running from the address in north Liverpool and suspected of pumping crack cocaine and heroin into Merseyside communities and beyond.
