Highland Police Scotland stop-and-search officers recover weapon and drugs from Caithness teens over six month period

Teens as young as 14 were detected with weapons and drugs by police stop-and-search officers in Caithness during a six-month period.

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 81 stop-and-search procedures on people of all ages in Caithness, of which 32 yielded positive results.

Of those detections, seven related to Class A narcotic possession, 19 were found with Class B drugs and two had Class C.

In one search, a 14-year-old boy was found with Class B drugs, while in another unrelated search a 14-year-old girl was spotted carrying a weapon, which was described by police as a “blunt instrument”.

Spirits were also detected on three underage teens.

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.

The biggest number of searches were carried out in Highland Council wards in and around Inverness.

During the same six-month period, officers in the Highland capital carried out almost 250 stop-and-search procedures - some of which were warrants.

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.

Elsewhere in the Highland Council area, there were 11 in Sutherland, of which six were positive – all of which were for Class B drugs.

Officers in Ross and 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.

There were also 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.