At least 14 suspected drug dealers arrested at V Festival

The men were arrested on suspicion of supplying a variety of drugs at the Chelmsford festival including Class-A substances.

One man – a 22-year-old from south Essex – was charged with possession of Class-C drugs with intent to supply and will appear before magistrates in Chelmsford this morning.

The others remained in custody last night and dozens more were also arrested on suspicion of possessing drugs.

An Essex Police spokeswoman said: “Various people were arrested following work by officers using pro-active drugs dogs on the festival site.

“We have also arrested some ticket touts and are now looking at the possibility of making a proceeds of crime seizure on their money.”.

There were also some reports of thefts from tents.

The spokeswoman added that the vast majority of fans had been well behaved with just a few arrests for minor assaults.

However more than 20 drivers were left in a pickle about how to get home after their cars were seized for motoring violations.

The cars were all spotted by Essex Police’s Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) system which highlights discrepancies from a national database such as no tax or insurance on vehicles.

Before the weekend’s festivities the force also issued a warning that they would not tolerate the use of any “legal high” drugs on the site.

Speeding restrictions on the roads surrounding Hylands Park which came into operation at 6am on Thursday will remain until this evening.

Roads were closed on the evenings of the concerts to provide extra safety to festival goers following a serious accident during a previous festival when one reveller was seriously injured after being struck by a car close to the site.

It was the 15th anniversary of the festival which saw about 180,000 heading to the Hylands Park site during the weekend for acts such as The Kings of Leon and Kasabian.

* See the centre pages for a full round up of the weekend’s musical highlights.