Three young men from London were arrested by police at a Stonehouse address on Thursday afternoon as part of an investigation into drugs supply to Plymouth.
Police have not revealed the street where the arrests took place at 3pm yesterday, but have confirmed that a number of items were seized from the property, including drug-related paraphernalia, a quantity of cash and a number of mobile phones.
They also confirmed no suspected drugs were seized from the property.
The young men, none of whom were registered as living at the address, were taken to three different police custody centres under what a senior officers has said are "drug protocols".
Plymouth Live understands this means they are being held until they have gone to the toilet in case they have secreted suspect packages about their persons.
In 2010 Plymouth Live reported on a new specialist Drug Recovery Unit in the grounds of Derriford Hospital which allows police officers to detain suspects who are believed to have either swallowed or inserted drugs into orifices in their bodies. At the time a senior officer in charge of Devon and Cornwall Police's custody suites told Plymouth Live that previously police had used "frost units" which were effectively a portable potty which did not flush.
However, they had found there were "inherent risks doing business that way, particularly doing it in police stations. If packages split there may not be sufficient time to get them to a hospital and it can have serious to fatal consequences".
They added that police had power in law to designate certain places as temporary police stations. As a result, the intent was to create a Drug Recovery Unit in Plymouth, Cornwall and Devon.
Police have stated that they are also safeguarding the undisclosed Stonehouse property at this time along with an individual who is legitimately connected to it.
The policing investigation aligns with recent warnings about County Lines operations which have seen crime organisations send Class A drugs from metropolitan areas to rural locations, using 'mules' or 'couriers', sometimes children or vulnerable adults.
The National Crime Agency has kept track of the violence and exploitation associated with County Lines activity for a number of years, where urban gangs from places such as London, Manchester and Liverpool use dedicated mobile phone lines to target individual drug users, bombarding them with messages about deals and then arranging for them to meet couriers who have been sent to hand over the drugs.
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