CRACK AND COKE SHAME OF NORTH

There are believed to be 6000 crack and cocaine addicts in the North
who need to find UKP150m a year through crime and prostitution to
fuel their habit, we can reveal.

A Sunday Sun probe has discovered that use of the class A drugs has
soared while police seizures of the narcotics have risen by a
staggering 825 per cent in five years, from just below 2kg to 16kg.

The real figure could be much higher as the most up-to-date figures
were only available from Cleveland, Northumbria and Durham police forces.

In 2002, we described how the region was being targeted by notorious
Yardie gangs, from Jamaica. Cleveland Police at the time denied this,
despite Teesside Crown Court being told weeks earlier that
Jamaican-born Andrew Williams had been sent by London Yardie bosses
to establish a crack cocaine market. He was jailed for four years and deported.

It was the first of a dozen cases involving Jamaican criminals and
crack cocaine heard in the North that year, the majority on Teesside.

Tony Pendleton, clinical co-ordinator at the North East Council on
Addictions, said: "Yardies run franchises in places where there are
low numbers of ethnic populations.

They contact dealers and get them to knock crack out for them on a
commission basis. The dealers are happy they don't have to fight them
as they have a fearsome reputation for violence.

"Anywhere where there is an established sex trade, such as Teesside,
you see a link with crack cocaine.

"People are right to be very concerned as wherever there is crack
cocaine, there's an ever increasing amount of crime."

Government figures show 0.2pc of the region's three million
population are hooked on either cocaine or its deadly derivative
crack . . . one of the most addictive substances known.

The Home Office estimates each addict needs UKP24,000 a year to feed
their habit. Since 2002, Cleveland Police have had some major
successes against drug barons with their Dealer a Day campaign.

A spokeswoman said: "Our figures have increased as a result of our
relentless campaign against the people who peddle drugs of all kinds
in our area.

"More than 2000 arrests have been made, in excess of 2360 operations
have been carried out against people involved in drugs and officers
have seized almost UKP2.5m pounds in drugs and UKP500,000 in cash."

Northumbria Police, which saw a big increase in cocaine and crack
seizures, recently carried out a series of raids in Newcastle that
saw 10 crack houses closed and 20 people arrested. Crack worth more
than UKP27,000 was also seized.

[Sidebar]

The True Cost Of Addiction

* The average crack or cocaine addict has an illegal income of UKP24,000.

* The cost in police hours, judicial work and health care for each
addict is UKP20,000.

* The average addict spends UKP325 a week on drugs.

* Each addict treated in residential rehab costs the taxpayer around
UKP15,000, and UKP27,000 for non-residential rehab.

* Only two per cent of drug offenders used cocaine in 1994. The
figure in 2004 was 10pc.

* In 1995 cocaine cost UKP82 per gram. Nationally, the average now is
UKP65 per gram. In the North it costs UKP40.

* According to police it is so cheap because it has been cut with the
pain killer phenacetin which has been banned for being carcinogenic.

* More than 500,000 burglaries in England and Wales in 2004 were
committed by heroin or cocaine addicts.

* More than a third of those arrested for any crime - 38 per cent -
tested positive for either heroin, cocaine or both.