Drug smuggler's mother 'humiliated' by police officer's 'clothes comment' during home search
Staffordshire Police has launched an internal investigation after an officer allegedly told a former Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner that her clothing "may need washing" while searching her home.
Former Lichfield Conservative Councillor and Deputy Staffordshire PCC Sue Arnold was left "humiliated" after her home was raided in connection with her son Jonathan, who was jailed last month for 23 years for drug smuggling.
Mrs Arnold complained her family was the victim of persecution as officers from West Midlands and Staffordshire Police investigated her "drug lord" son's criminal empire.
However, what upset the former councillor was her treatment at the hands of officers who raided her home and rooted through her clothes.
Mrs Arnold said: "My confidence in law enforcement had become diminished by a search of our property by Staffordshire Police officers left me humiliated when an inspector pulling out my [clothes] from a drawer and leaving them on display suggested coldly that ‘they may need washing'."
The former politician also complained her faith in the police had been destroyed after her son's relation to her was leaked to the press. West Midlands Police denied its officers were the culprits.
Staffordshire Police told the Express & Star: “Mrs Arnold made a number of complaints in May 2023, following our search of the family property in March 2022. We are conducting an internal investigation into her complaints.”
Mrs Arnold responded by saying she had no faith in any investigation about her treatment.
She said: "My confidence in the police was totally destroyed after comments from the first interviewing officer to Jonathan that 'the press will have a field day with this and your mother'.
"I am aghast and realise that there could also be a politically motivated agenda to all this.
“This persecution and twisting of the narrative are also destroying our family ties with us even unable to meet up with close relatives who are serving police officers because of the implication of being involved in all this. We can’t see our two nieces and missed the birth of a great niece recently.”
As for the “madness” of her son’s crimes, Mrs Arnold admits to being “absolutely appalled” by what has happened to her cherished only son, in “making these reckless decisions impacting on so many lives”.
She added: “The sentence handed down is testament to his wrongdoing and we are not here to argue the merits of this. Simply, justice has to be done."
Jonathan Arnold, 30, was jailed after French Customs’ officers found 63 blocks of cocaine weighing 71kg along with 99 bags of ketamine weighing 101kg. His removal firm was implicated in the smuggling of the drugs.
The drugs had a UK wholesale value of more than £2.5m (£2,561,900).
The biggest single seizure came in April last year, when the gang tried to bring 1,477kg of cocaine with a street value of around £118m into Portsmouth.
