BURNLEY POLICE LAUNCH RAID AFTER 'DRUGS' TIP-OFF

Police swooped on a suspected drugs dealer after neighbours lent a
helping hand in the battle to smash the illegal drugs market in Burnley.

Police targeted the house in Brunswick Street, Burnley Wood, just
before 9am yesterday after receiving intelligence.

And when someone inside the property appeared to place a substance on
a window sill outside, people living nearby contacted their local beat
bobbies and alerted them to what had happened, while the raid was
still ongoing.

Detectives have praised the assistance of the public througout their
week-long Protecting People initiative, which has led to more than 20
arrests across Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale.

Det Chief Insp Ian Critchley, who has led the Pennine division part of
the operation, urged people to come forward to help strengthen the
police war on drugs.

"People in these areas know what is going on and we want to ask for
their assistance. What we don't want is people who are afraid or
unable to work with us in tackling illegal drug use in their
neighbourhood," he added. One neighbour, who witnessed the police raid
yesterday, told officers: "It's about time".

Police were also conducting further spot-checks using automatic number
plate recognition (ANPR) technology and caught half a dozen drivers in
under an hour along Queen Victoria Road. Similar operations took place
along Lancashire's borders with North Yorkshire and Greater
Manchester, to combat the menace of travelling criminals, with
cross-force exercises on the outskirts of Colne and Whitworth.

Before yesterday, 23 had been arrested as part of Protecting People -
15 on drugs charges and eight for other criminal activities.

Eighty four fixed penalty notices have been issued following ANPR
checks across the three boroughs, which have seen more than 450
vehicles pulled over.

Drugs including heroin, cocaine, cannabis, ecstasy and other suspicous
pills have been recovered during 20-plus home searches and dozens of
fresh intelligence reports have been filed.

A 16-year-old boy was arrested in the raid, on suspicion of
possessing cannabis.