The drama of a bungling drug dealer who tried to frantically flush away crucial evidence as armed officers arrive at his door is all captured in tonight’s gripping instalment of Police Interceptors.
Firearms officers from Nottinghamshire Police can be seen forcing their way into the house of criminal Kieron Nichols after he ignores them in his panic to conceal his crimes.
Police were forced to smash a window having been disregarded by Nichols who they could see taking items from a table over to a toilet and flushing them away.
Once inside the 31-year-old’s house in Beckhampton Road, Bestwood, officers seized quantities of cocaine, MDMA and Diamorphine drugs, three firearms and other weapons including a rambo knife, knuckle dusters and a taser.
They also located deal bags, scales, a burner phone, razor blades and cash.
Nichols was arrested at the scene and charged with three counts of possession of a firearms, possession of a taser, possession of ammunition, possession with intent to supply class A drugs. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison on 15 June.
Acting on intelligence, officers had turned up at the property in the early hours of 26 April.
The revolvers were located inside a storage box in a bedroom.
One was wrapped in a blue plastic bag, another was found inside a sock having been wrapped in a pink plastic bag and the third was located inside a sports bag.
The full incident features on Channel 5’s Police Interceptors tonight.
One of the officer’s involved was firearms constable Rob Eley, who forced entry through the front door and searched the property.
He said: “We had been building up an intelligence picture on Nichols for some time and believed he was involved in drug dealing.
“When we attended to arrest him, Nichols was clearly spooked and was quickly trying to dispose of the drugs.
“It was a race against time to get to him with colleagues also trying to smash through a bedroom window.
“Thankfully we were in quite quickly and arrested and restrained him after he tried to fight us off.
“I then began searching the property and discovered drugs related paraphernalia and containers which had clearly previously contained drugs next to the toilet, where I believe he had been disposing of them.
“There were also a number of weapons within the property, including a Rambo knife and knuckle dusters. However, what surprised us the most was the number of firearms.
PC Eley is no stranger to executing major warrants. He has 12 years of policing experience behind him and has been on the firearms team for three years. He spent his first nine years with the force working on response in the city and Broxtowe areas.
“When entering an address to detain someone or recover drugs you consider many things – safety is paramount, however, there is always an element of speed and dynamics to quickly contain people before they flee and secure evidence before it is disposed of,” he added.
“Although we inevitably meet people who are capable of causing harm, it is rare to find such an arsenal of weaponry readily available as was the case with this incident.”
Also on the programme tonight, a 45-mile cross border pursuit of a black Lexus is brought to a stop with a little help from the stinger, and the knife crime team arrest a suspected drugs dealer, caught red handed with what appears to be cocaine and heroin in his pants.
Catch all of this and much more tonight on Channel 5 at 8pm.
