A HUNDRED pairs of designer shoes are being held in a Swindon police station, as detectives begin snatching suspected drug dealers’ top-end trainers.

Wiltshire Police is using powers under the Proceeds of Crime Act to seize the designer trainers.

In the past few weeks alone, officers working to smash dangerous drug gangs have taken around 15 pairs, said Det Con George Booth. Brands range from high street labels like Nike to trainers worth hundreds of pounds by designer labels Armani and Giuseppe Zanotti.

Det Con George Booth, based with Wiltshire Police’s North Dedicated Crime Team, said: “People seem to hate the fact that we’ve seized their trainers and they have to leave custody in a pair of black plimsolls. They’re extremely unhappy about it, but we think that’s a good thing.

“We want to get the message out that we’re dealing robustly with people if we think they’re buying their trainers with money from drugs.”

New and expensive trainers can be one of the more visible signs that young people are involved in drug dealing controlled by so-called county lines gangs. The generally London-based groups have cornered the heroin and crack cocaine market in Swindon and other Wiltshire towns. The gangs commonly use children and vulnerable addicts to help peddle their drugs.

Det Con Booth said: “It’s sad, but often, we will see young people arrested, released under investigation while enquiries continue, and then continue to work as runners for county lines drugs gangs. Being arrested doesn’t seem to have any effect on them.

“But when we seize their expensive trainers under the Proceeds of Crime Act, we are essentially taking away what they have worked for and we hope it will have an impact. For some of these young people, these trainers or designer clothes can be seen as a status symbol and so losing that is pretty difficult for them to deal with.”

The detective, who has been a police officer for 13 years, said the force was determined to show the drug gangs that Wiltshire was not a soft target.

Sgt Georgia Green, also of the North Dedicated Crime Team, urged parents to look out for the tell-tale signs that their children are being exploited by gangs: new trainers, staying out later and suddenly coming into cash.

She said: “Ask questions and report any suspicions to police as they could be being exploited.

“We have seen young people from all different backgrounds become involved in county lines and the first their parents know about it is when we turn up on their doorstep. From the first moment they are recruited into these gangs I don’t think these children know quite what risks they will be facing and by that time, it is too late and they are trapped. If they knew what they were falling into they wouldn’t do it, so I would encourage parents to try and have that chat with their children. It shouldn’t be a chat we have with them at the time of their arrest.

“I’d also like to stress to young people, that you may well be offered £100 a day to work for these drugs gangs, but the risks just are not worth it. Carrying weapons, transporting class A drugs to vulnerable drug addicts who will do anything to feed their habit, being threatened with violence and expected to travel at unsociable hours. If found in possession of an offensive weapon you could face up to five years in prison so please think of the consequences.”