Birmingham officers find 40 wraps of cocaine stuffed in man's boxers

Officers found 40 wraps of cocaine stuffed in a man's boxer shorts during a stop and search

Police retrieved 40 wraps of cocaine from a man's underpants during a stop and search in Erdington. Officers found the bumper haul from his boxer's when they stopped the suspect last week.

After carrying out a warrant, they seized drugs valued at £5,000. West Midlands have deployed a new team of plain clothes and unformed officers in Selly Oak and Erdington as part of Operation Skybridge.

This unit is working on areas which are affected particularly hard by robbery, burglary and drug offences. They draw on the traffic unit, dogs, drones, operational support unit and firearms teams for extra back-up.

Read More: Main Birmingham road closed over canal discovery

Sergeant Leon Butler said: "We’ve carried out dozens of stop and searches, made 12 arrests, disrupted drug dealing on the streets and carried out numerous seizures of weapons, drugs and cars.

“Last week we stopped and searched a man in Erdington to find he had 40 wraps of cocaine in his boxers. Through investigation and subsequent warrants we executed, we made a higher value drugs seizure of £5,000.

Birmingham: A Child Poverty Emergency

Child poverty is soaring in Birmingham and without urgent change, will only get worse. Having worked with charities and community groups, BirminghamLive is campaigning for the following changes to start to turn the tide:

1. End the two-child benefit cap
2. Provide free school meals to every child in poverty
3. Create a city “aid bank” for baby and child essentials
4. Protect children’s and youth services
5. Create permanent, multi year Household Support Fund and give more Discretionary Housing grants
6. Set up child health and wellbeing hubs in our most deprived neighbourhoods
7. Appoint a Birmingham child poverty tsar
8. Provide free public travel for young people

You can see why in more detail here.

Read our full report Birmingham: A Child Poverty Emergency here.

What you can do to help.

"This extra legwork means there is a good chance he will face a greater sanction, which is really good news for the force and for the community. We’re also seizing large amounts of drugs from other offenders, arresting nominals for robberies and burglaries and we’ve seized numerous weapons which could have caused real harm out on the streets..”

Inspector Shameem Ahmed, from Erdington’s Neighbourhood Team said; “It's great to have this additional support to tackle our priorities in Erdington. The team are working with the local policing teams in the area to respond to issues and carry out longer term problem solving work with partner agencies.”

Leon added; “We’re delighted to be getting stuck in at the sharp end. We all bring different skill sets, including investigations, response and officers from a burglary background. I’ve worked on proactive task forces before in Birmingham East and West so I bring that experience to the team.

“We will be relentlessly targeting the prolific offenders, those who cause harm to our policing areas the most.

“We’re looking forward to working with local neighbourhood teams throughout the force over the coming months."