DRUGS FLOOD CITY - BY POST

Heroin parcels are regularly being posted from Pakistan to undercover
addresses in Bradford to flood the city's streets, the Telegraph &
Argus can reveal.

The illicit packages are seen as a low-risk way of smuggling the drug
into the country and into the hands of cut-price Bradford dealers.

The parcels are addressed mainly to rented houses in the city.

They are then picked up, cut and bulked out with other substances from
paracetamol to brick dust, before being sold on to other dealers and
addicts at maximum profit.

A partnership of crime-busting organisations, led by the national
Serious Organised Crime Agency, is tackling the problem from its
source to distribution point.

A spokesman for SOCA said individual packages of heroin were being
smuggled into the UK by post "little and often" but the cumulative
amount was significant.

The spokesman said: "SOCA and our partners are trying to tackle this
at every stage across the supply chain.

"We are involved at source in Afghanistan or Pakistan, through Europe
and into the UK, with Revenue and Customs, the Association of Chief
Police Officers and local police."

The spokesman said it would not be possible to check every individual
parcel posted around the world and there was a large range of methods
of concealment.

He said: "The heroin can simply be wrapped in a towel and brown paper,
or innovative methods can be used such as weaving the drugs into cloth.

"Delivery methods also vary. The most common, to disguise who the
recipient is, is to use dead letter drops.

"We are aware of the problem and are tackling it. It's not a new
phenomenon, but certainly more sophisticated methods are being used."

Chief Superintendent Allan Doherty, Divisional Commander for Airedale
and North Bradford Police, said the packages were arriving in Bradford
"on a regular basis."

Chief Supt Doherty, who heads the Crackdown in Bradford, A Community
Against Drugs' initiative, said: "We deal with them.

"They are not so stupid to send the packages to themselves. They are
usually directed to a drop address, a rented property or the home of
someone who has been cajoled into receiving them.

"Some are detected en route, sometimes the package is seized and
prevented from continuing its journey or we might let it go on and
track it to see who collects it at the end.

"It is a low-risk way of getting heroin into the country instead of
bringing it in person on a flight but it depends on whether the sender
is happy to risk it in the post - the person at the other end might
not always tell them it arrived."

Heroin wraps are now sold for about UKP10 in the city but cut-price
dealers are offering discounts on double deals of crack cocaine and
heroin, known as white and brown.

Detective Inspector Neil Benstead, head of the Bradford District Drugs
Team, said two UKP10 wraps of heroin might be offered for UKP15, or UKP15 of
crack cocaine and UKP10 of heroin might be for sale for UKP20.

But once the dealers have hooked the addicts the prices will go up.

Det Insp Benstead said: "These dealers treat it as a business and will
offer discount to increase their business. They see the drugs they are
selling as a commodity, but they are an illegal commodity."

Anyone who has information or suspicions about drug dealing in the
district can Dob in a Dealer anonymously by calling Crimestoppers.