Middle-class cocaine fiends in the Home Counties care more about fair trade coffee than where their drugs come from, a police chief fumed today.

Police and Crime Commissioner for Hertfordshire David Lloyd blasted ethically-aware, white-collar criminals who shovel the Class A narcotic up their noses while worrying about farmers in the Third World.

He told the Commons Home Affairs Committee: “Frankly, the middle classes who in Hertfordshire are really concerned about their fair trade coffee and what the supply line of that is, don't seem to have the same concern around the cocaine that they take. Actually, the outcome of taking cocaine is not victimless.”

“Organised crime groups are using violence to enforce an unlawful market and they’re not particularly interested in supplying drugs, they are interested in making money unlawfully.”

Mr Lloyd made his comments to MPs on the powerful parliamentary committee investigating factors fuelling serious violence.

Police recorded 40,829 offences involving knives or sharp instruments in 2018 - up 6% on the year before.

Experts say the rise is partly linked to “county lines” drugs trafficking.

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The Mirror is campaigning to End the Knife Epidemic in the wake of the surge in bloodshed.

Our five demands are: more police with greater powers; reverse the cuts to youth services; boost awareness of knife crime in schools; tackle the problems behind the epidemic; and appoint a dedicated knife crime tsar.

Fears are mounting of youngsters who are kicked out of school being lured into gangs who place them in danger, force them to act as drug mules and pressure them to carry blades.

Mr Lloyd told the hearing: “The same vulnerable individuals who are subject to child sexual exploitation are also being groomed to do this.

“It is two heads of the same coin.”

He added: “Organised criminal groups don’t really care that it’s drugs they are dealing in.

“If there was someway there was no demand for drugs, organised crime groups would still be there and would still be trying to enforce their organised criminality, probably using violence.”

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Kids arming themselves believe they are carrying weapons for self-defence, he said.

But evidence shows they are more likely to be stabbed themselves, MPs were told.

“If you carry a knife the likelihood is you’re going to be injured by a knife,” said Mr Lloyd.

“They are less concerned about being arrested, they are less concerned about the impact of carrying a knife than being injured by someone else carrying a knife.

“The more young people feel there are knives out there, the more they use that as a justification for carrying a knife themselves.”

Labour MP Vicky Foxcroft, a member of the Youth Violence Commission, warned that children were living in fear of knife crime.

She told the committee: “If we are absolutely honest, our young people are terrified right now.”

Schools, police and social workers needed to work together to tackle gang violence, she told MPs.

Calling for a single pot of cash to help confront blade culture, Ms Foxcroft added: “The money should follow the issue and not each department ‘siloed off’ with its own budgets.”