A POLICE boss has warned north Wales will be a more dangerous place if Britain votes to leave the European Union.

According to the newly-elected North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Arfon Jones, a former police inspector who hails from Harlech, the terrorist threat was a key reason to stay in Europe.

Mr Jones believes the Paris and Brussels atrocities were stark reminders of what is at stake.

He also fears the European Police Office, known as Europol, which contributes to more than 13,500 cross-border investigations every year, would be weakened if Britain withdrew from the EU.

He said: “We in north Wales are particularly vulnerable as we have in Holyhead one of the UK’s major ports for entry from another EU member state.

“North Wales Police have always worked closely with the Republic of Ireland’s Garda to safeguard traffic between our two countries but achieving the same levels of co-operation would be much more difficult in the event of the UK voting to leave Europe.

“We know the current UK terror threat remains severe, meaning that a terrorist attack in the UK is ‘highly likely’.

“That means that those involved in law enforcement and safeguarding the public need to focus on doing just that and making use of the methods that we and our counterpart in Europe know what works best."

See the full story in this week’s Meirionnydd and Arfon/Dwyfor editions of the Cambrian News