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Highland Police Scotland stop-and-search officers recover firearm, knives and Class A drugs in Inverness over six month period





Police conducted numerous stops-and-searches over the six month period (stock image).
Police conducted numerous stops-and-searches over the six month period (stock image).

Dozens of incidents of Class A drug possession, six knives and even a firearm were detected by police during stop-and-search procedures in Inverness over just six months.

The figures came to light after Police Scotland published figures for the first six months of the current financial year - covering April to September 2024. The data was part of the force’s year-to-date progress report for the second quarter of the fiscal year.

During the window the police carried out almost 250 stop-and-search procedures - some of which were warrants - in council wards in and around the Highland capital.

More than half of all those searches were positive - with 46 incidents of Class A drug possession recorded, 63 Class B and a dozen Class C. Some of these were from the same search.

Six bladed weapons and one 'blunt instrument' were also detected, as too was one firearm - the latter of which was recovered during execution of a warrant.

Seven detections of stolen property, five incidents involving 'disposals of cash' and two 'other' detections were also made.#

In terms of the drug detections, these involved a number of ages - although the youngest spotted carrying Class A narcotics were as young as 17, while youths as young as 14 and 15 were detected carrying Class B drugs.

These figures came against a backdrop of 518 stop and search procedures being carried out across the whole of the Highland Council area during the same six month period.

Of those, almost 230 were positive.

Elsewhere in the Highland Council area there were 10 stop-and-search incidents in the Nairn and Cawdor ward during the same six months, of which two were positive - resulting in one incident of Class A drug possession, and one unspecified ‘other’ detection.

In Caithness, police conducted 81 stops, of which 32 were positive - with detections ranging from Class A, B and C drugs, to one “blunt instrument” found in the possession of a 14-year-old girl.

Spirits were also detected on three underage teens, and there was one ‘other’ detection recorded.

Sutherland recorded 11 stops, of which six were positive - all of which were for Class B drugs.

Officers in Ross & Cromarty carried out 115 stops and searches, with 39 coming back positive. Class A, B and C drugs were found, as well as one knife, and one ‘other’ detection.

And in Badenoch and Strathspey, there were 19 stops, six of which were positive. Of those, one found Class A drugs, four recorded Class B and the remaining one was for stolen property.




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