Four arrested near 'traveller takeover' Appleby Horse Fair after police uncover hoard of drugs

Also in the car was a "significant quantity" of balloons in the car which can be filled with nitrous oxide

All four occupants of the vehicle were arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply a Class C drug.

Detective Superintendent Dan St Quintin, Gold Police Commander for Appleby Horse Fair, said: "This was another successful proactive intervention by police aimed at keeping people at the Fair safe and preventing criminality.

"Nitrous oxide poses serious and well-documented risks to health and is illegal to possess or sell for recreational use.

"Our officers will continue to act against anyone suspected of being involved in criminality – regardless of which community those involved belong to."

Officers also seized 99 "pyramid rings" after stopping a vehicle at around 1am.

Officers stopped a vehicle in the early hours of June 5 in the Appleby area, heading to the trade fields for Appleby Horse Fair.

The rings were confiscated by Cumbria Police and will now be destroyed.

Commander St Quintin, said: "This is another example of our officers carrying out proactive work to keep people from all communities safe.

"There have been numerous examples around the country of such rings being used to cause significant injury to people so I welcome the fact we have been able to seize these items and have them destroyed before they are made available for sale."

Detectives from Cumbria Police are using live facial recognition technology to track the faces of those attending Appleby Horse Fair, a move welcomed by traveller community leaders.

Billy Welch, the Gypsy and traveller representative on the fair's organising group, told MailOnline: "'Every major festival, every large gathering like Appleby, if you go through the airport, they've got facial recognition.

"It's just everywhere. It's just a part of life now. And myself, personally, I'm not really bothered about it.

"The majority of Gypsies and travellers don't mind it at all. If you've done nothing wrong, well, you've got nothing to worry about."

The horse fair, formerly known as the Appleby New Fair, has been taking place annually for 250 years.

Often regarded as the largest gathering of the Gypsy, Romany and Traveller community in Europe, it has only been cancelled twice in its history, in 2001 due to the foot and mouth outbreak and in 2020 due to the covid-19 pandemic.

The gathering is occasionally known as "the New Fair" because Appleby's medieval borough fair, held at Whitsuntide, ceased in 1885.

In the 1900s, it became a key date in the traveller community attracting thousands to the Cumbria village.